
Class _^_Z17_ 

Book_ rE_^X 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 




THEODORE ROOSEVELT. 



THE ATTEMPTED 

ASSASSINATION 

of 



*'7 



EX-PRESIDENT 

Theodore Roosevelt 



Written, Compiled, and Edited by 
OLIVER E. PEMEY 

Henry F. Cochems 
Wheeler F. Bloodgood 



Published by 

THE PROGRESSIVE PUBLISHING COMPANY 

of Milwaukee, Wisconsin 



Copy-right, 1912, by O. E. Remey, Milwaukee 



;- r- 



.■^zh 



LIBRARY EDITION. 

A Library Edition of this book is in the hands of the printers 
and will be issued shortly. 

This edition will be bound in hard cover. The volume 
will be neatly bound and .suitable for public and private 
libraries. _*• 

The Library Edition will be limited in number. 

Those who desire a copy will be mailed a copy as soon as 
(he edition is off the press, if they will send one dollar to the 
Progressive Publishing Company of Milwaukee, Wis., Room 
600 Caswell Block, Milwaukee. 

The demand for this edition is rapidly exhausting it. 



i^. 



THIS HISTORICAL NARRATIVE 

IS DEDICATED TO 

EX-PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

THE GREATEST AMERICAN 

OF HIS TIME. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE. 

Theodore Roosevelt Frontispiece v/ 

Shirts Worn by the Ex-President 18 

Page of Ex-President's Manuscript 24 

X-Ray Photograph Showing Bullet 32 

John Flammang Schrank 40 

Page One of Schrank's Letter 50 

Page Two of Schrank's Letter 60 

Capt. A. O. Girard 70 

Elbert E. Martin 80 

Automobile in Which Ex-President Roosevelt Was Shot . . 90 

Johnston Emergency Hospital 100 

Judge August C. Backus 110 

District Attorney Winifred C. Zabel 120 

Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood 130 

Dr. R. G. Sayle 140 

John T. Janssen, Chief of Police 150 

Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt 160 

Members of Sanity Commission 170 

Hotel Gilpatrick 180 

Schrank in County Jail 190 

Henry F. Cochems 1 99 

James G. Flanders, Schrank's Attorney 236 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

PAGE. 

Preface 9 

Chronology 11 

Chapter I. The Shot is Fired 15 

Chapter II. Speaks to Great Audience 25 

Chapter III. Roosevelt in the Emergency 51 

Chapter IV. Careful of Collar Buttons 57 

Chapter V. Arrival at Mercy Hospital 64 

Chapter VI. Gets Back into Campaign 74 

Chapter VII. Back at Sagamore Hill 82 

Chapter VIII. Arrest, Appears in Court 91 

Chapter IX. Appears in Municipal Court 99 

Chapter X. Schrank Declared Insane 105 

Chapter XL Show^s Repentance But Once 112 

Chapter XII. Schrank Before Chief 117 

Chapter XIII. Witnesses of the Shooting 132 

Chapter XIV. A Second Examination 153 

Chapter XV. Report of the Alienists 192 

Chapter XVI. Finding of the Alienists 195 

Chapter XVII. Schrank Describes Shooting 202 

Chapter XVIII. Conclusion of Commission 208 

Chapter XIX. Schrank Discusses Visions 210 

Chapter XX. Schrank's Defense 213 

Chapter XXI. Schrank's Unwritten Laws 224 

Chapter XXII. Unusual Court Precedent 235 



PREFACE. 

At 8:10 o'clock on the night of Oct. 14, 1912, 
a shot was fired the echo of which swept around 
the entire world in thirty minutes. 

An insane man attempted to end the life of the 
only living ex-president of the United States and 
the best known American. 

The bullet failed of its mission. 

Col. Theodore Roosevelt, carrying the leaden 
missile intended as a pellet of death in his right 
side, has recovered. He is spared for many more 
years of active service for his country. 

John Flammang Schrank, the mad man who 
fired the shot, is in the Northern Hospital for the 
Insane at Oshkosh, Wis., pronounced by a commis- 
sion of five alienists a paranoiac. If he recovers he 
will face trial for assault with intent to kill. 

This little book presents an accurate story of the 
attempt upon the life of the ex-president. The aim 
of those who present it is that, being an accurate 
narrative, it shall be a contribution to the history of 
the United States. 

This book is written, compiled and edited by 
Henry F. Cochems, Chairman of the national 
speakers' bureau of the Progressive party during 
the 1912 campaign, and who was with Col. Roose- 



10 Preface. 

velt in the automobile when the ex-president was 
shot, Wheeler P. Bloodgood, Wisconsin repre- 
sentative of the National Progressive committee, 
and Oliver E. Remey, city editor of the Milwau- 
kee Free Press, who necessarily followed all inci- 
dents of the shooting closely. 

The story told is an historical narrative in the 
preparation of which accuracy never has been lost 
sight of. 



CHRONOLOGY. 

October 14, 1912— At 8:10 o'clock P. M., John 
Flammang Schrank, of New York, a paranoiac, 
shoots ex-President Theodore Roosevelt in the 
right side with a 38-caliber bullet as the ex-Presi- 
dent is standing in an automobile in front of Hotel 
Gilpatrick, Milwaukee. Schrank is immediately 
arrested, after a struggle to recover the revolver 
and protect him from violence. Col. Roosevelt, 
bleeding from his wound, is driven to the Audi- 
torium, Milwaukee, and speaks to an audience of 
9,000 for eighty minutes. Immediately after his 
speech he is taken to the Johnston Emergency 
hospital, Milwaukee, where his wound is dressed. 
At 12:30 o'clock he is taken on a special train to 
Chicago, then to Mercy hospital. 

October 15, 1912— Schrank is arraigned in Dis- 
trict court, Milwaukee, and admits having fired the 
shot. He is bound over to Municipal court for pre- 
liminary hearing. 

October 18, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
passes crisis in Mercy hospital, Chicago. 

October 21, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
leaves Chicago for his home at Oyster Bay, R. I. 

October 22, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
reaches home after a trip not seriously impairing 
his condition. 



12 Chronology. 

October 26, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
takes first walk out of doors. 

October 27, 1912 — Ex-President Roosevelt cele- 
brates his fifty-fourth birthday. 

October 30, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
speaks to an audience of 16,000 in Madison Square 
garden, New^ York, over 30,000 having been turned 
avi^ay. He is given an ovation lasting forty-five 
minutes. 

November 1, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
again speaks to an audience filling Madison Square 
garden. But for his request that it cease so that 
he could speak, the ovation w^ould have exceeded 
that of October 30. 

November 3, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
makes his last campaign speech at Oyster Bay, 
R.I. 

November 5, 1912— Ex-President Roosevelt 
votes at Oyster Bay, R. I. 

November 12, 1912— John Flammang Schrank 
pleads guilty to assault with intent to murder be- 
fore Judge August C. Backus in Municipal court, 
Milwaukee. Judge Backus appoints a commission 
of five Milwaukee alienists to determine, as officers 
of the court, Schrank's sanity. 

November 14, 1912 — The sanity commission 
begins examinations of Schrank. 



Chronology. 13 

November 22, 1912 — The sanity commission re- 
ports to Judge A. C. Backus in Municipal court, 
Milwaukee, that Schrank is insane and was insane 
at the time he shot ex-President Roosevelt. Schrank 
is committed to the Northern Hospital for the In- 
sane at Oshkosh, Wis. Judge Backus in making 
the commitment orders that in the event of recov- 
ery Schrank shall face trial on the charge of as- 
sault with intent to kill. 

November 25, 1912 — Schrank is taken to the 
Northern Hospital for the Insane, Oshkosh, Wis., 
by deputies from the office of the sheriff of Mil- 
waukee county. 



CHAPTER I. 
THE SHOT IS FIRED. 

RELATED BY HENRY F. COCHEMS AFTER THE SHOOTING. 

At 8:10 o'clock on the night of Oct. 14, 1912, 
an attempt was made to assassinate Ex-President 
Theodore Roosevelt in the city of Milwaukee. 
Col. Roosevelt had dined at the Hotel Gilpatrick 
with the immediate members of his traveling 
party. The time having arrived to leave for the 
Auditorium, where he was due to speak, he left 
his quarters, and, emerging from the front of the 
hotel, crossing the walk, stepped into a waiting 
automobile. 

Instantly that he appeared a wild acclaim of 
applause and welcome greeted him. He settled in 
his seat, but, responsive to the persistent roar of 
the crowd, which extended in dense masses for 
over a block in every direction, he rose in acknowl- 
edgement, raising his hat in salute. 

At this instant there cracked out the vicious 
report of a pistol shot, the flash of the gun show- 
ing that the would-be assassin had fired from a 
distance of only four or five feet. 

Instantly there was a wild panic and confusion. 
Elbert E. Martin, one of Col. Roosevelt's stenog- 
raphers, a powerful athlete and ex-football player, 



16 The Attempted Assassination of 

leaped across the machine and bore the would-be 
assassin to the ground. At the same moment Capt. 
A. O. Girard, a former Rough Rider and body- 
guard of the ex-President, and several policemen 
were upon him. Col. Roosevelt's knees bent just 
a trifle, and his right hand reached forward on 
the door of the car tonneau. Then he straightened 
himself and reached back against the upholstered 
seat, but in the same instant he straightened him- 
self, he again raised his hat, a reassuring smile 
upon his face, apparently the coolest and least 
excited of any one in the frenzied mob, who crowd- 
ing in upon the man who fired the shot, continued 
to call out: 

''Kill him, kill him." 

I had stepped into the car beside Col. Roose- 
velt, about to take my seat when the shot was fired. 
Throwing my arm about the Colonel's waist, I 
asked him if he had been hit, and after Col. Roose- 
velt saying in an aside, "He pinked me, Harry," 
called out to those who were wildly tearing at the 
would-be assassin: 

"Don't hurt him; bring him to me here!" 

The sharp military tone of command was heard 
in the midst of the general uproar, and Martin, 
Girard and the policemen dragged Schrank to- 
ward where Mr. Roosevelt stood. Arriving at 
the side of the car, the revolver, grasped by three 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 17 

or four hands of men struggling for possession, 
was plainly visible, and I succeeded in grasping 
the barrel of the revolver, and finally in getting it 
from the possession of a detective. Mr. Martin 
says that Schrank still had his hands on the re- 
volver at that time. The Colonel then said: 

"Officers, take charge of him, and see that there 
is no violence done to him." 

The crowd had quickly cleared from in front 
of the automobile, and we drove through, Col. 
Roosevelt waving a hand, the crowd now half- 
hysterical with frenzied excitement. 

After rounding the corner I drew the revolver 
from my overcoat pocket and saw that it was a 
38-caliber long which had been fired. As the 
Colonel looked at the revolver he said: 

"A 38-Colt has an ugly drive." 

Mr. McGrath, one of the Colonel's secretaries 
riding at his right side, said: 

"Why, Colonel, you have a hole in your over- 
coat. He has shot you." 

The Colonel said: 

"I know it," and opened his overcoat, which 
disclosed his white linen, shirt, coat and vest satu- 
rated with blood. We all instantly implored and 
pleaded with the Colonel to drive with the auto- 
mobile to a hospital, but he turned to me with a 
characteristic smile and said: 






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Shirts Worn by Ex-President Roosevelt Showing Extent of 

Bleeding from Wound While He Spoke 

to 9,000 People. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 19 

"I know I am good now; I don't know how 
long I may be. This may be my last talk in this 
cause to our people, and while I am good I am 
going to drive to the hall and deliver my speech." 

By the time we had arrived at the hall the 
shock had brought a pallor to his face. On alight- 
ing he walked firmly to the large waiting room in 
the back of the Auditorium stage, and there Doc- 
tors Sayle, Terrell and Stratton opened his shirt, 
exposing his right breast. 

Just below the nipple of his right breast ap- 
peared a gaping hole. They insisted that under no 
consideration should he speak, but the Colonel 
asked : 

"Has any one a clean handkerchief?" 

Some one extending one, he placed it over the 
wound, buttoned up his clothes and said: 

"Now, gentlemen, let's go in," and advanced 
to the front of the platform. 

I, having been asked to present him to the 
audience, after admonishing the crowd that there 
was no occasion for undue excitement, said that an 
attempt to assassinate Col. Roosevelt had taken 
place; that the bullet was still in his body, and that 
he would attempt to make his speech as promised. 

As the Colonel stepped forward, some one in 
the audience said audibly: 

"Fake," whereupon the Colonel smilingly said: 



20 The Attempted Assassination of 

"No, it's no fake," and opening his vest, the 
blood-red stain upon his linen was clearly visible. 

A half-stifled expression of horror swept 
through the audience. 

About the first remark uttered in the speech, 
as the Colonel grinned broadly at the audience, 
was: 

"It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull 
Moose. I'm all right, no occasion for any sym- 
pathy whatever, but I want to take this occasion 
within five minutes after having been shot to say 
some things to our people which I hope no one 
will question the profound sincerity of." 

Throughout his speech, which continued for an 
hour and twenty minutes, the doctors and his im- 
mediate stafif of friends, sitting closely behind him, 
expected that he might at any moment collapse. 
I was so persuaded of this that I stepped over the 
front of the high platform to the reporters' section 
immediately beneath where he was speaking, so 
that I might catch him if he fell forward. 

These precautions, however, were unnecessary, 
for, while his speech lacked in the characteristic 
fluency of other speeches, while the shock and pain 
caused his argument to be somewhat labored, yet 
it was with a soldierly firmness and iron determina- 
tion, which more than all things in Roosevelt's 
career discloses to the country the real Roosevelt, 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 21 

who at the close of his official service as President 
in 1909 left that high office the most beloved pub- 
lic figure in our history since Lincoln fell, and the 
most respected citizen of the world. As was said 
in an editorial in the Chicago Evening Post: 

"There is no false sentiment here; there is no 
self-seeking. The guards are down. The soul of 
the man stands forth as it is. In the Valley of 
the Shadow his own simple declaration of his sin- 
cerity, his own revelation of the unselfish quality 
of his devotion to the greatest movement of his 
generation, will be the standard by which history 
will pass upon Theodore Roosevelt its final judg- 
ment. This much they cannot take from him, no 
matter whether he is now to live or to die." 

To the men of America, who either love or 
hate Roosevelt personally, these words from his 
speech must carry an imperishable lesson: 

"The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make 
a very long speech. But I will try my best. 

"And now, friends, I want to take advantage 
of this incident to say as solemn a word of warning 
as I know how to my fellow Americans. 

"First of all, I want to say this about myself: 
I have altogether too many importast things to 
think of to pay any heed or feel any concern over 
my own death. 



22 The Attempted Assassination of 

"Now I would not speak to you insincerely 
within five minutes of being shot. I am telling you 
the literal truth when I say that my concern is for 
many other things. It is not in the least for my 
own life. 

"I want you to understand that I am ahead of 
the game anyway. No man has had a happier life 
than I have had — a happier life in every way. 

"I have been able to do certain things that I 
greatly wished to do, and I am interested in doing 
other things. 

"I can tell you with absolute truthfulness that 
I am very much uninterested in whether I am shot 
or not. 

"It was just as when I was colonel of my regi- 
ment. I always felt that a private was to be ex- 
cused for feeling at times some pangs of anxiety 
about his personal safety, but I cannot understand 
a man fit to be a colonel who can pay any heed to 
his personal safety when he is occupied, as he ought 
to be occupied, with the absorbing desire to do 
his duty. 

"I am in this cause with my whole heart and 
soul; I believe in the Progressive movement — a 
movement for the betterment of mankind, a move- 
ment for making life a little easier for all our peo- 
ple, a movement to try to take the burdens of¥ the 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 23 

man and especially the woman in this country who 
is most oppressed. 

"I am absorbed in the success of that movement. 
I feel uncommonly proud in belonging to that 
movement. 

"Friends, I ask you now this evening to accept 
what I am saying as absolute truth when I tell you 
I am not thinking of my own success, I am not 
thinking of my own life or of anything connected 
with me personally." 

The disabling of Col. Roosevelt at this tragic 
moment was a great strategic loss in his campaign. 
The mind of the country was in a pronounced state 
of indecision. He had started at Detroit, Mich., 
one week before and had planned to make a great 
series of sledge hammer speeches upon every vital 
issue in the campaign, which plan took him to the 
very close of the fight. He had planned to put his 
strongest opponent in a defensive position, the 
effect of which, now that all is over, no man can 
measure. Stricken down, an immeasurable loss 
was sustained. In the years that lie before, Vv^hen 
misjudgment and misstatements, which are the 
petty things born of prejudice, and which die with 
the breath that gives them life, shall have passed 
away, this incident and the soldierly conduct of the 
brave man who was its victim will have a real 
chastening and wholesome historical significance. 



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Page from Ex-President Roosevelt's Manuscript of Speech 
Showing Bullet Holes, 



CHAPTER II. 
* SPEAKS TO GREAT AUDIENCE. 

Standing with his coat and vest opened, hold- 
ing before him manuscript of the speech he had 
prepared to deliver, through which were two per- 
forations by Schrank's bullet, the ex-President was 
given an ovation which shook the mammoth Audi- 
torium, Milwaukee. 

The audience seemed unable to realize the truth 
of the statement of Henry F. Cochems, who had 
introduced Col. Roosevelt, that the ex-President 
had been shot. Col. Roosevelt had opened his vest 
to show blood from his wound. 

Even then many in the audience did not com- 
prehend that they were witnessing a scene destined 
to go down in history — an ex-President of the 
United States, blood still flowing from the bullet 
wound of a would-be assassin, delivering a speech 
from manuscript perforated by the bullet of the 
assailant. 

Col. Roosevelt said: 

''Friends, I shall ask you to be as quiet as pos- 
sible," he said. "I don't know whether you fully 
understand that I have just been shot, but it takes 
more than that to kill a bull moose. (Cheers.) 
But fortunately I had my manuscript, so you see I 

*Stenoeraphic Report from The Milwaukee Sentinel 



26 The Attempted Assassination of 

was going to make a long speech (holds up manu- 
script with bullet hole) and there is a bullet — 
there is where the bullet went through and it 
probably saved me from it going into my heart. 
The bullet is in me now, so that I can not make a 
very long speech, but I will try my best. (Cheers.) 
"And now, friends, I want to take advantage 
of this incident and say a word of a solemn warn- 
ing, as I know how to my fellow countrymen. 
First of all, I want to say this about myself: I 
have altogether too important things to think of to 
feel any concern over my own death, and now 1 
can not speak to you insincerely within five minutes 
of being shot. I am telling you the literal truth 
when I say that my concern is for many other 
things. It is not in the least for my own life. I 
want you to understand that I am ahead of the 
game, anyway. (Applause and cheers.) No man 
has had a happier life than I have led; a happier 
life in every way. I have been able to do certain 
things that I greatly wished to do and I am inter- 
ested in doing other things. I can tell you with 
absolute truthfulness that I am very much unin- 
terested in whether I am shot or not. It was just 
as when I was colonel of my regiment. I always 
felt that a private was to be excused for feeling at 
times some pangs of anxiety about his personal 
safety, but I can not understand a man fit to be a 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 27 

colonel who can pay any heed to his personal safety 
when he is occupied as he ought to be occupied 
with the absorbing desire to do his duty. (Ap- 
plause and cheers.) 

"I am in this cause with my whole heart and 
soul. I believe that the progressive movement is 
for making life a little easier for all our people; a 
movement to try to take the burdens off the men 
and especially the women and children of this 
country. I am absorbed in the success of that 
movement. 

"Friends, I ask you now this evening to accept 
what I am saying as absolutely true, when I tell 
you I am not thinking of my own success. I am 
not thinking of my life or of anything connected 
with me personally. I am thinking of the move- 
ment. I say this by way of introduction because I 
want to say something very serious to our people 
and especially to the newspapers. I don't know 
anything about who the man was who shot me to- 
night. He was seized at once by one of the stenog- 
raphers in my party, Mr. Martin, and I suppose 
is now in the hands of the police. He shot to kill. 
He shot — the shot, the bullet went in here— I will 
show you (opened his vest and shows bloody stain 
in the right breast; stain covered the entire lower 
half of his shirt to the waist). 



28 The Attempted Assassination of 

"I am going to ask you to be as quiet as possible 
for I am not able to give the challenge of the bull 
moose quite as loudly. Now I do not know who 
he was or what party he represented. He was a 
coward. He stood in the darkness in the crowd 
around the automobile and when they cheered me 
and I got up to bow, he stepped forward and shot 
me in the darkness. 

"Now friends, of course, I do not know, as I 
say, anything about him, but it is a very natural 
thing that weak and vicious minds should be in- 
flamed to acts of violence by the kind of awful men- 
dacity and abuse that have been heaped upon me 
for the last three months by the papers in the in- 
terest of not only Mr. Debs but of Mr. Wilson and 
Mr. Taft. (Applause and cheers.) 

"Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man 
of my party who attacks with such foul slander and 
abuse any opponent of any other party (applause) 
and now I wish to say seriously to all the daily 
newspapers, to the republican, the democratic and 
the socialist parties that they cannot month in and 
month out and year in and year out make the kind 
of untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made 
and not expect that brutal violent natures, or brutal 
and violent characters, especially when the bru- 
tality is accompanied by a not very strong mind; 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 29 

they cannot expect that such natures will be un- 
affected by it. 

"Now friends, I am not speaking for myself at 
all. I give you my word, I do not care a rap about 
beingshot not a rap. (Applause.) 

"I have had a good many experiences in my 
time and this is one of them. What I care for is 
my country. (Applause and cheers.) I wish I 
were able to impress upon my people — our peo- 
ple, the duty to feel strongly but to speak the 
truth of their opponents. I say now, I have never 
said one word against any opponent that I can not 
— on the stump — that I can not defend. I have 
said nothing that I could not substantiate and noth- 
ing that I ought not to have said — nothing that I — 
nothing that looking back at I would not say again. 

"Now friends, it ought not to be too much to 
ask that our opponents (speaking to some one on 
the stage) I am not sick at all. I am all right. I 
can not tell you of what infinitesimal importance 
I regard this incident as compared with the great 
issues at stake in this campaign and I ask it not for 
my sake, not the least in the world, but for the sake 
of our common country, that they make up their 
minds to speak only the truth, and not to use the 
kind of slander and mendacity which if taken seri- 
ously must incite weak and violent natures to 
crimes of violence. (Applause.) Don't you make 



30 The Attempted Assassination of 

any mistake. Don't you pity me. I am all right. 
I am all right and you can not escape listening to 
the speech either. (Laughter and applause.) 

"And now, friends, this incident that has just 
occurred — this effort to assassinate me, emphasizes 
to a peculiar degree the need of this progressive 
movement. (Applause and cheers.) Friends, 
every good citizen ought to do everything in his or 
her power to prevent the coming of the day when 
we shall see in this country two recognized creeds 
fighting one another, when we shall see the creed of 
the 'Havenots' arraigned against the creed of the 
'Haves.' When that day comes then such incidents 
as this tonight will be commonplace in our history. 
When you make poor men — when you permit the 
conditions to grow such that the poor man as such 
will be swayed by his sense of injury against the 
men who try to hold what they improperly have 
won, when that day comes, the most awful passions 
will be let loose and it will be an ill day for our 
country. 

"Now, friends, what we who are in this move- 
ment are endeavoring to do is to forestall any such 
movement by making this a movement for justice 
now — a movement in which we ask all just men of 
generous hearts to join with the men who feel in 
their souls that lift upward which bids them refuse 
to be satisfied themselves while their fellow coun- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 31 

trymen and countrywomen suffer from avoidable 
misery. Now, i'-iends, what we progressives are 
trying to do is to enroll rich or poor, whatever their 
social or industrial position, to stand together for 
the most elementary rights of good citizenship, 
those elementary rights which are the foundation 
of good citizenship in this great republic of ours. 

"My friends are a little more nervous than I 
am. Don't you waste any sympathy on me. I have 
had an Al time in life and I am having it now. 

"I never in my life had any movement in which 
I was able to serve with such wholehearted devo- 
tion as in this; in which I was able to feel as I do 
in this that common weal. I have fought for the 
good of our common country. (Applause.) 

"And now, friends, I shall have to cut short 
much of the speech that I meant to give you, but 
I want to touch on just two or three of the points. 

"In the first place, speaking to you here in Mil- 
waukee, I wish to say that the progressive party is 
making its appeal to all our fellow citizens with- 
out any regard to their creed or to their birthplace. 
We do not regard as essential the way in which a 
man worships his God or as being affected by 
where he was born. We regard it as a matter of 
spirit and purpose. In New York, while I was 
police commissioner, the two men from whom I 
got the most assistance were Jacob Ries, who was 




X-Ray Photograph Showing Bullet as it Remains in 
Theodore Roosevelt. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 33 

born in Denmark and Oliver Van Briesen, who 
was born in Germany, both of them as fine exam- 
ples of the best and highest American citizenship 
as you could find in any part of this country. 

"I have just been introduced by one of your 
own men here, Henry Cochems. His grandfather, 
his father and that father's seven brothers all served 
in the United States army and they entered it four 
years after they had come to this country from Ger- 
many (applause). Two of them left their lives, 
spent their lives on the field of battle — I am all 
right — I am a little sore. Anybody has a right to 
be sore with a bullet in him. You would find that 
if I was in battle now I would be leading my men 
just the same. Just the same way I am going to 
make this speech. 

"At one time I promoted five men for gallantry 
on the field of battle. Afterward it happened to 
be found in making some inquiries about that I 
found that it happened that two of them were Prot- 
estants, two Catholics and one a Jew. One Protes- 
tant came from Germany and one was born in Ire- 
land. I did not promote them because of their 
religion. It just happened that way. If all five of 
them had been Jews, I would have promoted them, 
or if all five had been Protestants I would have 
promoted them; or if they had been Catholics. In 
that regiment I had a man born in Italy who dis- 



34 The Attempted Assassination of 

tinguished himself by gallantry, there was a young 
fellow, a son of Polish parents, and another who 
came here when he was a child from Bohemia, who 
likewise distinguished themselves, and friends, I 
assure you, that I was incapable of considering any 
question whatever, but the worth of each indi- 
vidual as a fighting man. If he was a good fighting 
man, then I saw that Uncle Sam got the benefit 
from it. That is all. (Applause.) 

"I make the same appeal in our citizenship. I 
ask in our civic life we in the same way pay heed 
only to the man's quality of citizenship to repudiate 
as the worst enemy that we can have whoever tries 
to get us to discriminate for or against any man 
because of his creed or his birthplace. 

"Now, friends, in the same way I want our peo- 
ple to stand by one another without regard to dif- 
ferences or class or occupation. I have always 
stood by the labor unions. I am going to make one 
omission tonight. I have prepared my speech be- 
cause Mr. Wilson had seen fit to attack me by 
showing up his record in comparison with mine. 
But I am not going to do that tonight. I am going 
to simply speak of what I myself have done and of 
what I think ought to be done in this country of 
ours. (Applause.) 

"It is essential that there should be organiza- 
tions of labor. This is an era of organization. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 35 

Capital organizes and therefore labor must organ- 
ize. (Applause.) 

"My appeal for organized labor is twofold, to 
the outsider and the capitalist I make my appeal to 
treat the laborers fairly, to recognize the fact that 
he must organize, that there must be such organi- 
zation, that it is unfair and unjust — that the labor- 
ing man must organize for his own protection and 
that it is the duty of the rest of us to help him and 
not hinder him in organizing. That is one-half of 
the appeal that I make. 

"Now the other half is to the labor man himself. 
My appeal to him is to remember that as he wants 
justice, so he must do justice. I want every labor 
man, every labor leader, every organized union 
man to take the lead in denouncing crime or vio- 
lence. (Applause.) I want them to take the lead 
(applause) in denouncing disorder and inciting 
riot, that in this country we shall proceed under the 
protection of our laws and with all respect to the 
laws and I want the labor men to feel in their turn 
that exactly as justice must be done them so they 
must do justice. That they must bear their duty 
as citizens, their duty to this great country of ours 
and that they must not rest content without unless 
they do that duty to the fullest degree. (Interrup- 
tion.) 



36 The Attempted Assassination of 

"I know these doctors when they get hold of me 
they will never let me go back and there are just a 
few things more that I want to say to you. 

"And here I have got to make one comparison 
between Mr. Wilson and myself simply because he 
has invited it and I can not shrink from it. 

"Mr. Wilson has seen fit to attack me, to say 
that I did not do much against the trusts when I 
was president. I have got two answers to make to 
that. In the first place what I did and then I want 
to compare what I did while I was president with 
what Mr. Wilson did not do while he was gover- 
nor. (Applause and laughter.) 

"When I took office as president— (turning to 
stage) "How long have I talked?" 

Answer: "Three-quarters of an hour." 

"Well, I will take a quarter of an hour more. 
(Laughter and applause.) When I took office the 
anti-trust law was practically a dead letter and the 
interstate commerce law in as poor a condition. I 
had to revive both laws. I did. I enforced both. 
It will be easy enough to do now what I did then, 
but the reason that it is easy now is because I did it 
when it waS hard. (Applause and cheers.) 

"Nobody was doing anything. I found speed- 
ily that the interstate commerce law by being made 
more perfect could be a most useful instrument for 
helping solve some of our industrial problems with 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 37 

the anti-trust law. I speedily found that almost the 
only positive good achieved by such a successful 
lawsuit as the Northern Securities suit, for in- 
stance, was for establishing the principle that the 
government was supreme over the big corporation, 
but that by itself, or that law did not do — did not 
accomplish any of the things that we ought to have 
accomplished, and so I began to fight for the 
amendment of the law along the lines of the inter- 
state commerce, and now we propose, we progres- 
sives, to establish an interstate commission having 
the same power over industrial concerns that the 
interstate commerce commission has over railroads, 
so that whenever there is in the future a decision 
rendered in such important matters as the recent 
suits against the Standard Oil, the sugar — no, not 
that — tobacco — the tobacco trust — we will have a 
commission which will see that the decree of the 
court is really made effective; that it is not made a 
merely nominal decree. 

"Our opponents have said that we intend to le- 
galize monopoly. Nonsense. They have legalized 
monopoly. At this moment the Standard Oil and 
Tobacco trust monopolies are legalized; they are 
being carried on under the decree of the Supreme 
Court. (Applause.) 

"Our proposal is really to break up monopoly. 
Our proposal is to put in the law — to lay down cer- 



38 The Attempted Assassination of 

tain requirements and then require the commerce 
commission — the industrial commission to see that 
the trusts live up to those requirements. Our oppo- 
nents have spoken as if w^e were going to let the 
commission declare what the requirements should 
be. Not at all. We are going to put the require- 
ments in the law and then see that the commission 
makes the trust. (Interruption.) You see they 
don't trust me. (Laughter.) That the commission 
requires them to obey that law. 

"And now, friends, as Mr. Wilson has invited 
the comparison I only want to say this: Mr. Wil- 
son has said that the states are the proper author- 
ities to deal with the trusts. Well, about 80 per 
cent of the trusts are organized in New Jersey. 
The Standard Oil, the tobacco, the sugar, the beef, 
all those trusts are organized in New Jersey and 
Mr. Wilson — and the laws of New Jersey say that 
their charters can at any time be amended or re- 
pealed if they misbehave themselves and it gives 
the government — the laws give the government 
ample power to act about those laws and Mr. Wil- 
son has been govenor a year and nine months and 
he has not opened his lips. (Applause and cheers.) 
The chapter describing of what Mr. Wilson has 
done about the trusts in New Jersey would read 
precisely like a chapter describing the snakes in 
Ireland, which ran: 'There are no snakes in Ire- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 39 

land.' (Laughter and applause.) Mr. Wilson has 
done precisely and exactly nothing about the trusts. 

"I tell you and I told you at the beginning I do 
not say anything on the stump that I do not believe. 
I do not say anything I do not know. Let any of 
Mr. Wilson's friends on Tuesday point out one 
thing or let Mr. Wilson point out one thing he has 
done about the trusts as governor of Nev^ Jersey. 
(Applause.) 

"And now, friends, I want to say one special 
thing here — " 

(Col. Roosevelt turned to the table upon the 
stage to reach for his manuscript, but found it in 
the hands of some one upon the stage. He de- 
manded it back with the words: "Teach them not 
to grab," which provoked laughter.) 

"And now, friends, there is one thing I want to 
say specially to you people here in Wisconsin. All 
that I have said so far is what I would say in any 
part of this union. I have a peculiar right to ask 
that in this great contest you men and women of 
Wisconsin shall stand with us. (Applause.) You 
have taken the lead in progressive movements here 
in Wisconsin. You have taught the rest of us to 
look to you for inspiration and leadership. Now, 
friends, you have made that movement here locally. 
You will be doing a dreadful injustice to your- 
selves; you will be doing a dreadful injustice to the 




John Flammang Schrank. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 41 

rest of us throughout this union if you fail to stand 
with us now that we are making this national move- 
ment (applause) and what I am about to say now 
I want you to understand if I speak of Mr. Wilson 
I speak with no mind of bitterness. I merely want 
to discuss the difference of policy between the pro- 
gressive and the democratic party and to ask you to 
think for yourselves which party you will follow. 
I will say that, friends, because the republican 
party is beaten. Nobody need to have any idea that 
anything can be done with the republican party. 
(Cheers and applause.) 

"When the republican party — not the republi- 
can party — when the bosses in the control of the 
republican party, the Barneses and Penroses last 
June stole the nomination and wrecked the repub- 
lican party for good and all. (Applause.) I want 
to point out to you, nominally, they stole that nomi- 
nation from me, but really it was from you. (Ap- 
plause.) They did not like me and the longer they 
live the less cause they will have to like me. (Ap- 
plause and laughter.) But while they do not like 
me, they dread you. You are the people that they 
dread. They dread the people themselves, and 
those bosses and the big special interests behind 
them made up their mind that they would rather 
see the republican party wrecked than see it come 
under the control of the people themselves. So I 



42 The Attempted Assassination of 

am not dealing with the republican party. There 
are only two ways you can vote this year. You can 
be progressive or reactionary. Whether you vote 
republican or democratic it does not make any dif- 
ference, you are voting reactionary." (Applause.) 

Col. Roosevelt stopped to take a drink of water 
and the doctors remonstrated with him to stop talk- 
ing, to which he replied : "It is getting to be better 
and better as time goes on. (Turning to the audi- 
ence) If these doctors don't behave themselves I 
won't let them look at me at all." (Laughter and 
applause.) 

"Now the democratic party in its platform and 
through the utterances of Mr. Wilson has distinctly 
committed itself to old flintlock, muzzle loaded 
doctrine of states right and I have said distinctly 
that we are for the people's right. We are for the 
rights of the people. If they can be obtained best 
through the national government, then we are for 
national rights. We are for the people's rights 
however it is necessary to secure them. 

"Mr. Wilson has made a long essay against 
Senator Beveridge's bill to abolish child labor. It 
is the same kind of an argument that would be 
made against our bill to prohibit women from 
working more than eight hours a day in industry. 
It is the same kind of argument that would have to 
be made, if it is true, it would apply equally against 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 43 

our proposal to insist that in continuous industries 
there shall be by law one day's rest in seven and a 
three-shift eight hour day. You have labor laws 
here in Wisconsin, and any Chamber of Commerce 
will tell you that because of that fact there are in- 
dustries that will not come into Wisconsin. They 
prefer to stay outside where they can work chil- 
dren of tender years; where they can work women 
fourteen and sixteen hours a day, where, if it is a 
continuous industry, they can work men twelve 
hours a day and seven days a week. 

"Now, friends, I know that you of Wisconsin 
would never repeal those laws even if they are to 
your commercial hurt, just as I am trying to get 
New York to adopt such laws even though it will 
be to New York's commercial hurt. But if pos- 
sible, I want to arrange it so that we can have jus- 
tice without commercial hurt, and you can only get 
that if you have justice enforced nationally. You 
won't be burdened in Wisconsin with industries not 
coming to the state if the same good laws are ex- 
tended all over the other states. (Applause.) Do 
you see what I mean? The states all compete in a 
common market and it is not justice to the employ- 
ers of a state that has enforced just and proper laws 
to have them exposed to the competition of another 
state where no such laws are enforced. Now the 
democratic platform, their speaker declares that we 



44 The Attempted Assassination of 

shall not have such laws. Mr. Wilson has dis- 
tinctly declared that you shall not have a national 
law to prohibit the labor of children, to prohibit 
child labor. He has distinctly declared that we 
shall not have law to establish a minimum wage 
for women. 

"I ask you to look at our declaration and hear 
and read our platform about social and industrial 
justice and then, friends, vote for the progressive 
ticket without regard to me, without regard to my 
personality, for only by voting for that platform 
can you be true to the cause of progress throughout 
this union. (Applause.) 

All through his talk, it was evident that his 
physicians feared his injury had been more serious 
than he was willing to admit. That a man with a 
bullet embedded in his body could stand up there 
and insist on giving the audience the speech which 
they had come to hear was almost incredible and it 
was plain the physicians as well as the other friends 
of the colonel on the stage were greatly alarmed. 

Col. Roosevelt, however, would have none of it. 
"Sit down, sit down," he said to those who, when 
he faltered once or twice, half rose to come towards 
him. He insisted that he was having a good time 
in spite of his injury. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 45 

Finally a motherly looking woman a few rows 
of seats back from the stage rose and said,^_ Mr. 
Roosevelt, we all wish you would be seated^ 

To this the colonel quickly replied. 1 thanK 
YOU, madam, but I don't mind it a bit " 

To those on the stage, who wished he would 
adopt the suggestion of being seated he said: 
"Good gracious if you saw me in the saddle at the 
head of my troops with a bullet in me you would 

not mind." 

The only time Col. Roosevelt gave up and took 
a seat was when he came to a quotation from La 
FoUette's weekly which paid him a tribute ot 
praise for his work as president. This was read 
by Assemblyman T. J. Mahon, while the colonel 

rested. 

At the conclusion of the reading Col. Roosevelt 
said that he was the same man now that he was then 
He had not been president since 1909 so that what 
he was described as being then he was now. 

T. J. Mahon read this editorial from La Fol- 
lette's magazine of March 13, 1909: 

"Roosevelt steps from the stage gracefully. He 
has ruled his party to a large extent against its will. 
He has played a large part of the wor d s work for 
the past seven years. The activities of his remark- 
ably forceful personality have been so mam old 
that it will be long before his true rating will be 



46 The Attempted Assassination of 

fixed in the opinion of the race. He is said to think 
that the three great things done by him are the 
undertaking of the construction of the Panama 
canal and its rapid and successful carrying for- 
ward, the making of peace between Russia and 
Japan, and the sending around the world of the 
fleet. 

"These are important things but many will be 
slow to think them his great services. The Panama 
canal will surely serve mankind when in operation ; 
and the manner of organizing this work seems to 
be fine. But no one can yet say whether this project 
will be a gigantic success or a gigantic failure; and 
the task is one which must in the nature of things 
have been undertaken and carried through some 
time soon, as historic periods go, anyhow. The 
peace of Portsmouth was a great thing to be re- 
sponsible for, and Roosevelt's good offices undoubt- 
edly saved a great and bloody battle in Manchuria. 
But the war was fought out, and the parties ready 
to quit, and there is reason to think that it is only 
when this situation was arrived at that the good 
offices of the President of the United States were, 
more or less indirectly, invited. The fleet's cruise 
was a strong piece of diplomacy, by which we in- 
formed Japan that we will send our fleet wherever 
we please and whenever we please. It worked out 
well. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 47 

"But none of these things, it will seem to many, 
can compare with some of Roosevelt's other 
achievements. Perhaps he is loath to take credit 
as a reformer, for he is prone to spell the word 
with question marks, and to speak disparingly of 
'reform.' 

"But for all that, this contention of 'reformers' 
made reform respectable in the United States, and 
this rebuke of 'muck-rakers' has been the chief 
agent in making the history of 'much-raking' in the 
United States a national one, conceded to be useful. 
He has preached from the White House many doc- 
trines; but among them he has left impressed on 
the American mind the one great truth of economic 
justice couched in the pithy and stinging phrase 
'the square deal.' The task of making reform re- 
spectable in a commercialized world, and of giving 
the national a slogan in a phrase, is greater than the 
man who performed it is likely to think. 

"And, then, there is the great and statesmanlike 
movement for the conservation of our national re- 
sources, into which Roosevelt so energetically 
threw himself at a time when the nation as a whole 
knew not that we are ruining and bankrupting our- 
selves as fast as we can. This is probably the great- 
est thing Roosevelt did, undoubtedly. This globe 
is the capital stock of the race. It is just so much 
coal and oil and gas. This may be economized or 



48 The Attempted Assassination of 

wasted. This same thing is true of phosphates and 
other mineral resources. Our water resources are 
immense, and we are only just beginning to use 
them. Our forests have been destroyed; they must 
be restored. Our soils are being depleted; they 
must be built up and conserved. 

"These questions are not of this day only, or of 
this generation. They belong all to the future. 
Their consideration requires that high moral tone 
which regards the earth as the home of a posterity 
to whom we owe a sacred duty. 

''This immense idea, Roosevelt, with high 
statesmanship, dinned into the ears of the nation 
until the nation heeded. He held it so high that it 
attracted the attention of the neighboring nations 
of the continent, and will so spread and intensify 
that we will soon see world's conferences devoted 
to it. 

"Nothing can be greater or finer than this. It 
is so great and so fine that when the historian of the 
future shall speak of Theodore Roosevelt, he is 
likely to say that he did many notable things, 
among them that of inaugurating the movement 
which finally resulted in the square deal, but that 
his greatest work was inspiring and actually begin- 
ning a world movement for staying terrestrial 
waste and saving for the human race the things 
upon which, and upon which alone, a great and 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 49 

peaceful and progressive and happy race life can 
be founded. 

"What statesman in all history has done any- 
thing calling for so wide a view and for a purpose 
more lofty?" 







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CHAPTER III. 
ROOSEVELT IN THE EMERGENCY. 

After Colonel Roosevelt had finished speaking 
at the Auditorium, the efifect of the shock and loss 
of blood from the shot, was quite manifest in his 
appearance. Despite this fact, however, he walked 
with firm step to an automobile waiting at the rear 
of the big hall, and guarded by a group of friends, 
was driven rapidly to the Johnston Emergency 
hospital. Preparation had there been made for a 
careful examination and for treatment by Dr. 
Scurry L. Terrell, who attended Col. Roosevelt 
during his entire trip, Dr. R. G. Sayle and Dr. T. 
A. Stratton, both of Milwaukee. 

At the hospital. Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood, a 
surgeon of the faculty of Johns-Hopkins univer- 
sity, was invited into the consultation. The Colo- 
nel's first thought had been to reassure Mrs. Roose- 
velt and family against any unnecessary fear, and 
before he received treatment, he sent a long reas- 
suring telegram, together with a telegram to Seth 
Bullock, whose telegram was one of the first of the 
stream of telegrams which began pouring in for 
news of the patient's condition. 

During the preliminary examination of the 
wound by the doctors in the Johnston Emergency 



52 The Attempted Assassination of 

hospital, preparations were completed to secure 
X-ray pictures under the direction of Dr. J. S. 
Janssen, Roentgenologist, Milwaukee. Dr. Jans- 
sen secured his views and left for his laboratory to 
develop the negatives. 

While these negatives were being secured, it 
was determined by the doctors that no great addi- 
tional danger would be incurred if Col. Roosevelt 
were moved to a train, and by special train to Chi- 
cago, which plan he had proposed, so that he might 
be nearer to the center of his fight. He was moved 
by ambulance to the train, which left Milwaukee 
shortly after midnight. 

In the meantime, the completion of the X-ray 
pictures disclosed the fact that the bullet laid be- 
tween the fourth and fifth ribs, three and one-half 
inches from the surface of the chest, on the right 
side, and later examinations disclosed that it had 
shattered the fourth rib somewhat, and was sepa- 
rated by only a delicate tissue from the pleural 
cavity. 

By a miracle it had spent its force, for had it 
entered slightly farther, it would almost to a cer- 
tainty have ended Col. Roosevelt's life. 

Upon Dr. Janssen's report of the location of the 
bullet, there was a period of indecision, during 
which the train waited, before the surgeons con- 
cluded that the patient might be taken to Chicago, 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt S3 

despite the deep nature of the wound, without seri- 
ously impairing his chances. 

Arriving at Chicago about 3 in the morning 
of October 15, an ambulance was procured and the 
Colonel taken to Mercy hospital, where he was at- 
tended by Dr. John B. Murphy, Dr. Arthur Dean 
Bevan and Dr. S. L. Terrell. 

A week later, during which the surgeons con- 
cluded that the wound was not mortal, and having 
recovered his strength somewhat, he was taken 
East to his home at Oyster Bay. 

The bullet lies where it imbedded itself. It 
has not been disturbed by probes, because surgeons 
have concluded that such an effort would incur 
additional danger. 

That the shot fired by Schrank didn't succeed 
in murdering Col. Roosevelt is a miracle of good 
fortune. A "thirty-eight" long Colt's cartridge, 
fired from a pistol frame of "forty-four" caliber 
design, so built because it gives a heavier drive to 
the projectile, fired at that close range, meant al- 
most inevitable death. 

The aim was taken at a lower portion of Col. 
Roosevelt's body, but a bystander struck Schrank's 
at the moment of explosion, and elevated the direc- 
tion of the shot. After passing through the Colo- 
nel's heavy military overcoat, and his other cloth- 
ing, it would have certainly killed him had it not 



54 The Attempted Assassination of 

struck in its course practically everything which he 
carried on his person which could impede its force. 

In his coat pocket he had fifty pages of manu- 
script for the night's speech, which had been dou- 
bled, causing the bullet to traverse a hundred pages 
of manuscript. 

It had struck also his spectacle case on the outer 
concave surface of the gun metal material of which 
the case was constructed. It had passed through a 
double fold of his heavy suspenders before reach- 
ing his body. 

Had anyone of those objects been out of the 
range of the bullet, Schrank's dastardly purpose 
would have been accomplished beyond any con- 
jecture. 

Just before he went to the operating room in 
the Emergency hospital Col. Roosevelt directed the 
following telegram to Mrs. Roosevelt and gave 
orders that if the telegraph office at Oyster Bay was 
closed the message should be taken to Sagamore 
Hill by taxicab. 

"Am in excellent shape, made an hour and half 
speech. The wound is a trivial one. I think they 
will find that it merely glanced on a rib and went 
somewhere into a cavity of the body; it certainly 
did not touch a lung and isn't a particle more 
serious than one of the injuries any of the boys used 
continually to be having. Am at the Emergency 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 55 

hospital at the moment, but anticipate going right 
on with my engagements. My voice seems to be in 
good shape. Best love to Ethel. 

"Theodore Roosevelt.'' 

The first bulletin issued by surgeons at the 
Johnston Emergency hospital vv^as: 

"The bleeding was insignificant and the wound 
was immediately cleansed, externally and dressed 
with sterile gauze by R. G. Sayle, of Milwaukee, 
consulting surgeon of the Emergency hospital. As 
the bullet passed through Col. Roosevelt's clothes, 
doubled manuscript and metal spectacle case, its 
force was much diminished. The appearance of 
the wound also presented evidence of a much bent 
bullet. The colonel is not suffering from shock and 
is in no pain. His condition was so good that the 
surgeons did not object to his continuing his jour- 
ney in his private car to Chicago where he will be 
placed under surgical care." 

(Signed) 

Dr. S. L. Terrell. 

Dr. R. G. Sayle. 

Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood, 

of the faculty of Johns-Hopkins University. 

Dr. T. a. Stratton. 



56 The Attempted Assassination of 

The following bulletin was issued just before 
Col. Roosevelt was taken to the special train which 
carried him to Chicago: 

"Col. Roosevelt has a superficial flesh wound 
below the right breast with no evidence of injury 
to the lung. 

"The bullet is probably lodged somewhere in 
the chest walls, because there is but one wound and 
no signs of any injury to the lung. 

"His condition was so good that the surgeons 
did not try to locate the bullet, nor did they try to 
probe for it." 

Dr. S. L. Terrell. 
Dr. R. G. Sayle. 



CHAPTER IV. 

CAREFUL OF COLLAR BUTTONS. 

Miss Regine White, Superintendent of the John- 
ston Emergency Hospital, cut the gory shirts from 
Colonel Roosevelt and, after he had been attended 
by surgeons, tied the hospital shirt, with ''John- 
ston Emergency Hospital" emblazoned across the 
front, about him. 

Miss White, describing the ex-President's stay 
in the hospital, said: 

"Col. Roosevelt is the most unusual patient who 
ever was ministered to in the Johnston Emergency 
Hospital, in that he was absolutely calm and un- 
perturbed, and influenced every one about him to 
be so, although excitement and unrest were in the 
very atmosphere, and he was suffering much. 

"Col. Roosevelt had not been in the hospital 
fifteen minutes before every one he came in con- 
tact with was willing to swear allegiance to the 
Bull Moose party, and personal allegiance to, the 
genial Bull Moose himself. He was so friendly 
and cordial, so natural and free, so happy and 
genial and so inclined to 'jolly' us all that we felt 
on terms of intimate friendship with him almost 
immediately, and yet through all this freedom of 
manner he maintained a dignity that never for an 



58 The Attempted Assassination of 

instant let us forget we were in the presence of a 
great man. 

"It is almost unbelievable that he could have 
been as unruffled and apparently unconcerned as 
he w^as when he really was suffering, and when 
he did not know how serious the wound was. 

"GOD HELP POOR FOOL.'' 

"I asked the colonel how he felt about the 
prosecution of the man who shot him," said Miss 
White, "and he said, 'I've not decided yet, but God 
help the poor fool under any circumstances!' and 
the tone he used was one of kindly sympathy and 
sincerity, and without one trace of malice or sar- 
casm. 

"He seemed kindly interested in everything 
that any one said to him. Miss Elvine Kucko, 
one of our nurses, shook hands with him when he 
was about to go and said she was sorry the shoot- 
ing had happened in our city. The colonel con- 
soled her by saying it might have happened any- 
where. I broke in with a remark to the effect that 
he would have felt even worse had it been per- 
petrated by a Milwaukeean, and that we were glad 
it was a New Yorker who did the deed. 

"'You cruel little woman!' the patient ejacu- 
lated, and I remembered then that New York was 
the ex-President's state." 

When he was ready to go. Miss White offered 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 59 

him a sealed envelope and told him his cuff buttons, 
shirt studs and collar buttons were in it. 

"No, you can't do that with me," he said, "1 
want to see! I don't intend to get down to Chi- 
cago without the flat button for the back of my 
collar." 

Miss White joined him in a laugh as she pull- 
ed open the envelope and counted each one sep- 
arately into his hand. That flat bone button that 
he treasured hid itself under one of the others and 
he had to have a second count before he was satis- 
fied that he was not going to be inconvenienced by 
its loss when he should next care to wear a collar. 

Doctors and nurses questioned the ex-Presi- 
dent's coat being warm enough, but he assured 
them that the coat was one he had worn in the 
Spanish-American war, that it was of military 
make and would keep him warm enough in a 
steam-heated Pullman. 

When the bandages were being strapped on 
the colonel's chest to keep the dressing in place, 
one of the doctors, Fred Stratton, a young giant, 
didn't put one fold as Miss White thought it ought 
to be. She ordered it put right, and the colonel 
began to laugh, which isn't to be wondered at when 
one remembers that Miss White is a tiny, wee bit 
of flufify humanity who doesn't look a bit like what 
one would expect, the superintendent of a big hos- 
pital and looked a pigmy beside the big doctor. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 61 

"That's nothing," said Dr. R. G. Sayle, "she's 
been bossing us doctors for the past twenty years!" 

"Oh, please — not quite that long — -" began Miss 
White. 

"Well, we'll knock ofif two and make it eigh- 
teen," the colonel interposed. 

When the wound was dressed doctors and 
nurses tried to persuade the patient to remain over 
night, but without success. 

"I know if Mrs. Roosevelt were here she would 
insist upon your staying," Miss White said. 

"Young woman, if Mrs. Roosevelt were here 
I am certain she would insist upon my leaving 
immediately," her husband made reply, and gazed 
at the four pretty nurses surrounding him. 

When the patient was brought up the elevator 
and led into the "preparation" room, the first thing 
to do was to prepare him for care of his wound. 
Miss White took his eye glasses. The Colonel ob- 
jected and said he did not want those out of his 
sight. But when Miss White assured him she 
would give the glasses her personal attention he 
seemed content with the arrangement. 

One of the physicians asked for a chair for 
Col. Roosevelt. Miss White said the operating 
table was ready, and the colonel immediately ac- 
quiesced and laid down on the carefully scrubbed 
pine slab on an iron frame, which has carried the 
weight of tramps, laborers and other unfortunates 



62 The Attempted Assassination of 

picked up in the street, but never before that of an 
ex-President of the United States. 

(Miss White was a little diffident about expos- 
ing the fact that the president had said a swear 
word, but she finally admitted that he remarked: 

"I don't care a d — n about finding the bullet 
but I do hope they'll fix it up so I need not continue 
to suffer." 

The doctors washed the wound area, painted 
it with iodine, itself a somewhat painful operation, 
and proceeded to the dressing. 

One of the doctors told Col. Roosevelt that 
Miss White was a suffragist, and that after his 
kind treatment he ought to be converted. Miss 
White said the Big Bull Moose was a suffragist 
and that was one of the big planks of his party 
and the colonel laughed and said of course he be- 
lieved in it. 

When the party left for Chicago Dr. R. G. 
Sayle took with his antisepticized surgeon's gloves, 
surgical dressing and instruments to be used in case 
of hemorrhage before Chicago was reached. 

Not a souvenir of the ex-President's visit re- 
mains in the hospital. His shirt was turned over 
to the police, and a blood-soaked handkerchief 
which was bound upon the wound, and which was 
picked up by one of the nurses, was found to have 
an "S" in the corner, so it was evident that it either 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 63 

did not belong to the ex-President or he had not 
always owned it, and this was discarded. 

The Mercy Hospital nurses were appreciative 
of Col. Roosevelt. 

"He was the best patient I ever had," said Miss 
Welter, and the sentiment was endorsed by Miss 
Fitzgerald. 

"He was consideration itself. He never had a 
word of complaint all the time he was at the 
hospital, and his chief worry seemed to be that 
we were not comfortable. We had expected to 
find him 'strenuous' and possibly disagreeable. On 
the contrary, we found him most docile. He 
chafed at being kept in bed, but he tried not to 
show it, and he never was ill-humored or peevish, 
as many patients in a similar position are." 



CHAPTER V. 
ARRIVAL AT MERCY HOSPITAL. 

Arriving at Mercy Hospital, Chicago, Col. 
Roosevelt was given further examination on Octo- 
ber 15. Several bulletins of his condition were is- 
sued. The last official bulletin given out by his 
staff physicians, J. B. Murphy, A. D. Bevan and 
Scurry L. Terrell, showed a most favorable con- 
dition. 

Mrs. Roosevelt reached Chicago with her son 
Theodore and her daughter Ethel, was driven di- 
rectly to Mercy Hospital and took charge of her 
husband as soon as she had greeted him. She was 
quite composed on her arrival and placidly di- 
rected afifairs all through. As a result of her pres- 
ence, the colonel's visiting list was materially cut 
down, he devoted less time to reading telegrams, 
and discussed the campaign very little. 

Part of the morning he spent in reading cable- 
grams of sympathy and congratulation on his es- 
cape from Emperor William, King George, the 
President of France, the King of Italy, the King of 
Spain, the President of Portugal and the Crown 
Prince and Princess of Germany. 

Among his few callers were Col. Cecil Lyon, 
Medill McCormick, Dr. Alexander Lambert, his 
family physician, who accompanied Mrs. Roose- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 65 

velt to Chicago, Dr. Evans of Chicago and Dr. 
Woods-Hutchinson, a writer on medical topics, a 
warm personal friend. 

As soon as he saw Dr. Lambert the colonel 
said: 

"Lambert, you'd have let me finish that speech 
if you'd been there after 1 was shot, wouldn't you?" 

"Perhaps so," returned the doctor, a little 
dubiously, "but 1 should have made sure you were 
not seriously hurt first." 

Before Mrs. Roosevelt arrived the colonel was 
insistent that he be allowed to go to Oyster Bay 
shortly. After a talk with Mrs. Roosevelt, he said 
he would leave that question to her. 

"It will probably be ten days at least before 
we go," she said. "It is too far distant to attempt 
a prophecy." 

A more careful examination of the X-ray 
photographs taken of the patient disclosed the fact 
that his fourth rib was slightly splintered by the 
impact of the bullet lodged against it. This ac- 
counted for the discomfort that the colonel suf- 
fered. 

Mrs. Roosevelt was insistent on taking her hus- 
band home at the earliest moment consistent with 
safety. 

The colonel passed an easy day. He continued 
to exhibit the utmost indifference to the motives of 
Schrank, who sought his life. "His name might 



66 The Attempted Assassination of 

be Czolgosz or anything else as far as I am con- 
cerned," he said to one of his visitors. "I never 
heard of him before and know nothing about him." 

To another friend he expressed the opinion 
that the man was a maniac afflicted with a paranoia 
on the subject of the third term. He showed no 
curiosity about him and did not discuss him, al- 
though he talked considerably about the shooting. 

"You know," he said to Dr. Murphy, "I have 
done a lot of hunting and I know that a thirty- 
eight caliber pistol slug fired at any range will not 
kill a bull moose." 

Before he went to sleep, Col. Roosevelt called 
for hot water and a mirror and sitting in bed, care- 
fully shaved himself. Mrs. Roosevelt, tired out 
after her long journey, also retired early, at 10 
o'clock. 

The following bulletin, issued by the surgeons 
on the morning of October 15, described the 
wound inflicted by Schrank's bullet: 

"Col. Roosevelt's hurt is a deep bullet wound 
of the chest wall without striking any vital organ 
in transit. The wound was not probed. The point 
of entrance was to the right of and one inch below 
the level of the right nipple. The range of the 
bullet was upward and inward, a distance of four 
inches, deeply in the chest wall. There was no 
evidence of the bullet penetrating into the lung. 
Pulse, 90; temperature, 99.2; respiration, 20; leu- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 67 

cocyte count, .82 at 10 a. m. No operation to re- 
move bullet is indicated at the present time. Con- 
dition hopeful, but wound so important as to de- 
mand absolute rest for a number of days." 
(Signed) 

"Dr. John B. Murphy. 

"Dr. Arthur B. Bevan. 

"Dr. Scurry L. Terrell. 

"Dr. R. G. Sayle.^' 

The arrival of Col. Roosevelt in Mercy Hos- 
pital, Chicago, was described by John B. Pratt, of 
the International News service, a correspondent 
traveling with the ex-President during the cam- 
paign, as follows: 

"Any way, if I had to die, I wanted to die with 
my boots on." Lying on a hospital bed completely 
filled by his great bulk, Theodore Roosevelt made 
this answer to a question by Dr. Terrell. 

He had just talked with the newspaper men 
who were with his party enroute. Terrell, coming 
in at the conclusion of the conversation, expressed 
the fear that the ex-President was exerting him- 
self beyond his strength. 

"You do too much," said Terrell. "The most 
uncomfortable hour I ever spent in my life was 
while I sat on that platform in Milwaukee won- 
dering where that bullet was and in how imminent 
danger you were. How could you be so incautious 



68 The Attempted Assassination of 

_as to make a speech then? It was all very well for 
you to say the shot was not fatal but how could 
you tell?" 

The colonel grinned, raised his arm heavily, 
trying not to show the pain that came with every 
movement. 

"I did not think the wound was dangerous," he 
said. "I was confident that it was not in a place 
where much harm could follow and therefore I 
wished to make the speech. Anyway, even if it 
"^went against me — well, if I had to die — " and the 
colonel chuckled grimly, "I thought I'd rather die 
with my boots on." 

The newspaper men who were with him when 
out of the darkness came the bullet that still men- 
aces his life, felt that in that sentence he had epito- 
^ mized his unfaltering courage. Never once since 
has he wavered in courage. Physically overcome 
he once sank back, and came as near to fainting as 
so strong a man can. All the rest of the time he 
has been as serene as a man unhurt. 
•^ It was in the gray of this morning's daylight 
that we caught our first glimpse of him after the 
shooting. Standing in the corridor of his private 
car as it lay in the North-Western station in Chi- 
cago, we heard Dr. Terrell say: 

"Now is a chance to see the old warrior, he is 
coming out." 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 69 

The door of his state room creaked and swung 
open slowly. As it swung back within loomed the 
figure that attracts attention everywhere. The 
colonel stepped out slowly, his shoulders thrown 
back and his bearing soldierly. He stretched out 
two fingers to one of the party. 

"Ah, old comrade," he said, "shake. The news- 
paper boys are my friends," he added, as he pro- 
ceeded toward the door of the car. "I'm glad to 
see them." 

"You had a pretty rough time last night, colo- 
nel," suggested somebody. 

"We did have a middling lively time, didn't 
we?" said the colonel with a broad grin. 

"Pretty plucky of you," said another man. 
"Everybody agrees to that." 

"Fiddlesticks," and the colonel stepped out on 
the platform and down the steps. 

He had indignantly refused a stretcher and 
even balked at an ambulance, but finally agreed 
that this was the best means of conveyance to the 
hospital. 

He walked past a silent crowd, a crowd that 
wanted to cheer, but did not dare, but stood, with- 
out a smile as he went by. To them all he waved a 
hand. Just as he was leaving the steps a flashlight 
flared forth, the sharp report of the powder star- 
tling everybody. 




Capt. A. O. Girard. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 71 

"Ah, shot again," said the colonel, without a 
tremor. 

Before climbing into the ambulance he turned 
to the newspaper men who had come out to see 
him off. 

"I want to see you newspaper men at the hos- 
pital at 3 o'clock. I want all the old guard there." 
Then he started up the steps of the automobile con- 
veyance with a firm step and tried to seat himself 
firmly on the cushion. But he had counted on more 
strength than he possessed. With a smothered ex- 
clamation he sank back among them, his head 
dropping and his figure one of pathetic helpless- 
ness. 

At 3 o'clock he welcomed the newspaper men 
sitting up in bed with his massive chest hidden be- 
neath an undershirt. 

"I came away in too big a hurry to get my 
pajamas," he explained, apologetically. 

"Here they are, bless their hearts. They never 
desert me," the colonel cried, as the visitors were 
ushered in. 

His face had lost the gray of the early morn- 
ing and resumed its normal tint. He never looked 
better and certainly never looked larger. He filled 
the narrow hospital cot completely, from side to 
side, and from end to end. 

Two beautiful rooms had been secured for him 
at Mercy Hospital, one of the biggest and finest 



72 The Attempted Assassination of 

institutions in the west. The four windows of the 
sick room faced two on Calumet avenue and two 
on Twenty-sixth street, in a quiet part of town, 
away from the smoke and the roar of the elevated 
trains. To make the air more salubrious an oxy- 
gen apparatus had been placed in the room, which 
liberated just enough gas to make the air fresh and 
to give it an autumn twang. 

In response to a question as to how he felt, he 
replied with a laugh : "I feel as well as a man feels 
who has a bullet in him." 

"But haven't you any pain?" asked someone. 

"Well," the colonel said, dryly, "A man with a 
bullet in him is lucky if he doesn't experience a lit- 
tle pain." 

Here Dr. Terrell, always on watch, held up a 
warning hand. 

"You must not talk much," he said. 

"I'll boss this job," said Roosevelt. "You go 
away and let me do this thing." 

Just then the door opened to admit Elbert E. 
Martin, the herculean stenographer who had grab- 
bed Schrank before he could fire a second shot. 

"Here he is," cried the colonel, waving his 
hand, "here is the man that did it." 

Martin had brought a lot of telegrams. The 
colonel, lying partly propped up adjusted the great 
.tortoise shell glasses and proceeded to look them 
over. With one of them he seemed especially 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 73 

pleased. It came from Madison, Wis., and was 
as follows: 

"Permit me to express my profound regret that 
your life should have been in peril and to express 
my congratulations upon your fortunate escape 
from serious injury. I trust that you will speedily 
recover. 

(Signed) 

"Robert M. La Follette.'' 

"Let me see that again," he said, after turning 
it back to Martin. When he had read it a second 
time he said: "Here, take this," and dictated: 

"Senator Robert M. La Follette — Thanks sin- 
cerely for your kind expressions of sympathy." 

Half an hour the colonel spent looking over 
and answering private telegrams, dictating always 
in a clear, strong voice. When he had done he 
talked with the newspaper men of former experi- 
ences of the kind he had just gone through and 
of cranks at Sagamore Hill and at the White 
House. 

"But I never had a bullet in me before," he 
said. 



CHAPTER VI. 
GETS BACK INTO CAMPAIGN. 

October 17, convinced that he was beyond all 
possible danger, Col. Roosevelt resumed the active 
campaign from his sick room in Mercy Hospital 
by dictating a statement in v^hich he requested his 
political opponents to continue the fight as if noth- 
ing had happened to him. 

The colonel awoke feeling as he expressed it, 
"like a bull moose." In the afternoon he overcame 
Mrs. Roosevelt's objections to work long enough 
to send for Stenographer Martin and dictate the 
statement that put him back into politics. 

Then he answered dispatches from President 
Taft, Cardinal Gibbons, and several other of those 
who had sent messages of sympathy. 

He carefully reread the dispatch from Presi- 
dent Taft and dictated this reply: 

"I appreciate your sympathetic inquiry and 
wish to thank you for it." 

"Sign that Theodore Roosevelt," he said to 
Martin. 

To Cardinal Gibbons he sent this: 

"I am deeply touched by your kind words." 

To Woodrow Wilson: "I wish to thank you 
for your very warm sympathy." 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 7S 

His statement dictated to Stenographer Mar- 
tin asking the campaign to continue despite 
Schrank's shot was as follows: 

"I wish to express my cordial agreement with 
the manly and proper statement of Mr. Bryan at 
Franklin, Ind., when in arguing for a continuance 
of the discussion of the issues at stake in the con- 
test he said: 

" 'The issues of this campaign should not be 
determined by the act of an assassin. Neither Col. 
Roosevelt nor his friends should ask that the dis- 
cussion should be turned away from the principles 
that are involved. If he is elected President it. 
should be because of what he has done in the past 
and what he proposes to do hereafter.' 

"I wish to point out, however, that neither I 
nor my friends have asked that the discussion be 
turned away from the principles that are involved. 
On the contrary, we emphatically demand that the 
discussion be carried on precisely as if I had not 
been shot. I shall be sorry if Mr. Wilson does not 
keep on the stump and feel that he owes it to him- 
self and to the American people to continue on 
the stump. 

"I wish to make one more comment on Mr. 
Bryan's statement. It is of course perfectly true 
that in voting for me or against me, consideration 
must be paid to what I have done in the past and 
to what I propose to do. But it seems to me far 



/6 1 he Attempted Assassination of 

more important that consideration should be paid 
to what the progressive party proposes to do. 

"I cannot too strongly emphasize the fact upon 
which we progressives insist that the welfare of 
any one man in this fight is wholly immaterial 
compared to the greatest fundamental issues in- 
volved in the triumph of the principles for which 
our cause stands. If I had been killed the fight 
would have gone on exactly the same. Gov. John- 
son, Senator Beveridge, Mr. Straus, Senator Bris- 
tow. Miss Jane Addams, Gififord Pinchot, Judge 
Ben Lindsay, Raymond Robbins, Mr. Prender- 
gast and the hundreds of other men now on the 
stump are preaching the doctrine that I have been 
preaching and stand for, and represent just the same 
cause. They would have continued the fight in ex- 
actly the same way if I had been killed, and they 
are continuing it in just the same way now that I 
am for the moment laid up. 

"So far as my opponents are concerned, what- 
ever could with truth and propriety have been said 
against me and my cause before I was shot can 
with equal truth and equal propriety be said 
against me and it now should be so said, and the 
things that cannot be said now, are merely the 
things that ought not to have been said before. This 
is not a contest about any man ; it is a contest con- 
cerning principles. 

"If my broken rib heals fast enough to relieve 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 11 

my breathing I shall hope to be able to make one 
or two speeches yet in this campaign; in any event, 
if I am not able to make them the men I have men- 
tioned above and the hundreds like them will be 
stating our case right to the end of the campaign 
and I trust our opponents will be stating their case 
also. 

"Theodore Roosevelt." 

October 19, Gov. Hiram W. Johnson, of Cali- 
fornia, candidate for Vice-President on the Na- 
tional Progressive ticket, was summoned to Mercy 
Hospital by Col. Roosevelt. 

The governor hastened to the hospital and con- 
ferred with Roosevelt for an hour. The ex-Presi- 
dent urged upon Johnson that he return to Cali- 
fornia to hold his office as governor. Johnson had 
two years to serve of his term and under the law 
he would forfeit the governorship if he did not get 
back. The law there provides that no governor 
shall absent himself from office for more than two 
months running. Johnson had been away all but a 
few days of that period. 

"Governor, I realize the sacrifice you have 
made in keeping so long away from your office," 
began the colonel, in serious tone. "I am told that 
if you do not hurry back they will take the gov- 
ernorship away from you. Now, I want you to go 
back. Leave the campaign to me. I can handle 



78 ihe Attempted Assassination of 

it all right. Soon I'm going out on the stump and 
I'll lead the fight myself." 

Gov. Johnson marveled at the bold idea that 
Roosevelt, convalescing from the bullet wound, 
would take command again. 

"You can't do it, colonel," he protested. "You 
will need to build up your strength. I won't " 

"Fiddlesticks," interrupted the colonel. "You'll 
do what I say. I never felt any stronger in my 
life. It's all a matter of being able to breathe 
easier with this splintered rib. That won't bother 
me more than a few days. Then they can't hold 
me back." 

Flatly Gov. Johnson informed Col. Roosevelt 
that he wanted to stay in the fight. 

"I'm needed," he went on. "I'm going to let 
them take the governorship. I'll resign." 

Leaning out from the arm chair in which he 
sat, Roosevelt whacked his right fist down on the 
table before him. A sharp pain went through the 
breast pierced by the bullet. 

"I tell you, governor, you'll not do it," fairly 
cried the colonel, so vehemently that Mrs. Roose- 
velt, in the next room, stepped to the doorway. 

"You must be quiet, Theodore," spoke Mrs. 
Roosevelt, lifting a warning finger. 

"Yes, that's right," agreed the colonel, "but the 
governor here is recalcitrant and I've got to speak 
roughly to him." 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 79 

After a brisk interchange of opinion as to the 
feasibility of the governor giving up the campaign 
the two violently taking opposite sides, bidding the 
colonel an affectionate good-bye, Gov. Johnson left 
the hospital. As he passed out to an automobile, 
Johnson said he had promised the colonel to talk 
the matter over with other leaders before deciding 
what to do. 

"He insists that I return to California and I 
insist I won't," explained the governor. "We 
couldn't agree." 

Later Gov. Johnson conferred at his hotel with 
William Allen White, Francis J. Heney and other 
Bull Moose leaders. The governor was obdurate 
in his decision to stick in the race. 

"Col. Roosevelt is in no shape to take up the 
responsibility," he maintained. "It is but an evi- 
dence of his magnanimity that he urges me to re- 
turn to California. I'd rather lost the job than 
desert the colonel now." 

Attorney General U. S. Webb of California on 
October 20 issued the following opinion, however, 
which did away with possibility of Gov. Johnson 
losing his office: 

"There is a code section in the state limiting the 
absence of the governor and other officials from 
the state to sixty days, but the legislature of 1911 
by resolution, removed the limitations on the gov- 




Elbert iL. Martin. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 81 

ernor and other high state officials. In addition to 
that the constitution of the United States specifical- 
ly provides the conditions under which a state of- 
ficial may be removed, and it does not include this 
particular condition. There is no reason why Gov. 
Johnson cannot remain outside the state as long as 
he sees fit and there is nothing the legislature can 
do to remove him for remaining away more than 
sixty days." 



CHAPTER VII. 
BACK AT SAGAMORE HILL. 

The trip of ex-President Roosevelt from 
Mercy Hospital, Chicago, to his home at Oyster 
Bay, beginning the morning of October 21 over 
the Pennsylvania road is described here by one of 
the correspondents who traveled with him. Under 
date of October 21, he wrote at Pittsburg, Pa.: 

"On a mellow autumn day whose warmth 
seemed to breathe a tender sympathy, Col. Roose- 
velt traveled from Chicago today on his way to 
Oyster Bay on the most extraordinary trip ever un- 
dertaken by a candidate for the presidency. 

"Unable because of sheer weakness to show 
himself on the platform of his private car, the 
stricken Bull Moose leader, with blinds drawn in 
his stateroom, listened with throbbing heart to the 
soft murmuring of eager throngs as they clustered 
at the stations along the way. As the train rolled 
into Pittsburg tonight the colonel, shaken up by 
the jostling of the train, meekly confessed to Dr. 
Alexander Lambert, his New York physician, who 
with Dr. Scurry Terrell, are making the trip with 
him, that he was 'tired out.' 

" 'I'm going to put in a sound night of sleep,' 
he sighed, 'I'll be all right again in the morning.' 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 83 

"The bullet nestling in the colonel's chest and 
the splintered rib gave him more discomfort than 
the wounded leader had counted on. As the train 
jolted at times the ex-President experienced pierc- 
ing pain. But he bore it without a whimper. 

"When night came the physicians agreed that 
although the tumbling of the train had caused the 
colonel more worry than he would admit, he would 
suffer no ill effects. 

"The ex-President's leisurely jaunt through 
Ohio, for he is running upon a twenty-four hour 
train, was in truth an occasion of tragic quiet. The 
waiting throngs which half anticipated that they 
would see the plucky third party fighter walk out 
onto platform of his car, stood in a respectful atti- 
tude as they learned that the colonel was unable to 
see them. 

"Almost the whole day the ex-President lay on 
a soft bed in his state room, reading, or when that 
grew irksome, dropping into restful slumber. Out- 
side of his family, his stenographer, John Martin 
and the latter's wife, who boarded the train at 
Lima, the colonel saw no one. He asked for quiet, 
feeling himself that he needed to conserve all the 
strength at his command for the long run to Oyster 
Bay. 

"The ex-President started his jaunt homeward 
by fooling the newspaper men in Chicago. At 
Mercy Hospital the tip was allowed to filter out 



84 The Attempted Assassination of 

that the colonel would climb into an automobile at 
the front entrance. Camera men adjusted their 
machines and a flock of newspaper men waited. 

"Instead, the ex-President was wheeled to a 
side door to an automobile ambulance, into which 
he pulled himself. 

" 'I fooled them that time,' chuckled the colo- 
nel to Dr. Lambert, who climbed in after him. 

"While the colonel was driven to the train, 
Mrs. Roosevelt, Miss Ethel and Theodore, Jr., 
took an automobile. So as to avoid the crowd at 
the Pennsylvania depot, the ambulance was taken 
to the train by way of a yard, the colonel's private 
car being drawn up for it. Only a few yardmen 
were there to salute the colonel as he stepped from 
the ambulance. They raised their hats and one of 
them cried: 

" 'Colonel, good luck to you!' Roosevelt lifted 
his right hand to his hat and gave a military 
salute." 

Concerning the ex-President's appearance in 
Madison Square Garden, New York, on the night 
of October 30, a press dispatch said: 

"Bearing no outward sign of the bullet in his 
breast, Theodore Roosevelt tonight hurled himself 
back into the campaign at Madison Square Gar- 
den. He spoke for forty minutes to the biggest 
meeting he has ever addressed in New York and 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 85 

to one of the greatest gatherings ever seen in that 
historic auditorium. 

"More than 15,000 men and women welcomed 
him. Another vast crowd waited all evening out- 
side in the hope that they might catch a word or 
two from the colonel as he departed. They were 
disappointed, for his physicians, fearing too great 
a tax on his strength, refused to permit him to make 
more than one address. 

"The crowd inside cheered for forty minutes 
when Roosevelt, at twenty minutes past 9 o'clock 
led his guards into the garden, climbed the steps 
to the speaker's gallery and stood before them. 
Bandannas and American flags waved like a mov- 
ing forest, the shouts of the crowd and the drum- 
ming of thousands of heels on the floor drowned 
the band and every air that has been sung in the 
campaign from 'Everybody's Doin' It' to 'Onward, 
Christian Soldiers,' boomed forth when the en- 
thusiasts, wearied of plain cheering, of mooing 
like the moose, or of yelling: 'We want Teddy! 
We want Teddy!' 

"The great hall whose galleries and arched 
ceiling were completely hidden with bunting and 
huge flags, made a marvelous picture as the 
colonel, leaning over the speaker's rail, his teeth 
snapping like a bulldog's, raised his left hand in 
first greeting. 



86 The Attempted Assassination of 

"For three-quarters of an hour he stood there. 
Now and then recognizing a friend he would make 
a dash to the other end of the stand, a distance of 
twenty feet and wave his hand — always his left — in 
greeting. 

"As he faced first to the left, then to the right, 
he awakened successive outbursts of cheers, and 
bandannas and flags were set in motion by sections, 
till red flushes ran over the crowd like waves. 

"The colonel's speech was pitched in a solemn 
and impressive key. He made no direct allusion 
to the attack upon him. He made no attack upon 
any individual among his political foes. He 
named no names save those of Washington, 
Lincoln, Jefferson and Jackson. 

"Deliberately avoiding the line of advance, 
which was punctuated with applause, he appealed 
for the votes of his auditors for the progressive 
cause, making no reference to himself and none 
to his achievements. 

"With cheeks thinner than they were before 
the attack upon him, but with a brilliant color, 
with figure sturdy and erect, and with a voice that 
reached to every part of the hall, and never once 
cracked into the falsetto squeak that often charac- 
terizes it, the colonel seemed the picture of health. 
Not at all while he was speaking did he smile. 
All his gestures, save one or two were made with 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 87 

his left hand which, being farthest removed from 
the bullet wound, could be moved with impunity. 

"Once or twice toward the end he brought his 
right hand down with a resounding slap on the 
rail of the speaker's stand, but his face gave no 
indication that the gesture caused him pain. The 
flashhghts which were set off at intervals during 
the address he faced without wincing. 

"Col. Roosevelt was preceded by Senator 
Dixon, who presided, by Oscar Straus, candidate 
for governor in New York, and by Governor 
Johnson of California." 

"Col. Roosevelt's physicians went into his state 
room to see him soon after the train left Engle- 
wood. They found him contentedly reading: 

" 'Col. Roosevelt is resting well and is very 
comfortable.' 

"So well, indeed, was the ex-President that the 
doctor said he did not bother to take his pulse and 
temperature." 

Col. Roosevelt arrived at Sagamore Hill at 10 
o'clock in the morning of October 22. 

When the ex-President's physicians left him at 
dusk they gave out this bulletin, impressing their 
insistence that Roosevelt devote himself to solid 
rest: 

"Col. Roosevelt has stood the journey well, but, 
of course, is tired. The wound is still open and 



88 The Attempted Assassination of 

oozing. Rest and quiet are essential to him to 
avoid possibilities of wound infection. He will 
be able to see no one tonight. While Col. Roose- 
velt is extremely anxious to take up the work of 
the campaign we are not willing to say at this time 
that that will be possible. 

"Jos. A. Blake. 
"George E. Brewer. 
"Alexander S. Lambert. 
"Scurry L. Terrell.'' 

The colonel was brought to Sagamore Hill in 
an auto from Syasset, L. I., without going to 
Oyster Bay, in order to avoid any crowd. 

Flowers sent to Sagamore Hill by the school 
children of Nassau county were the only tokens of 
public welcome for the homecoming. 

When he arrived at Sagamore Hill the colonel's 
wound was dressed and he went to bed at once, with 
instructions to remain quiet all day. The physi- 
cians said the wound showed no ill effects from 
the trip. 

Col. Roosevelt and his secretaries were busy 
on the train until late in the night of October 21, 
looking for an old speech of the colonel's on the 
trusts. This speech had been the basis of recent 
criticism by William J. Bryan, and after a secre- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 89 

tary had unearthed it and Col. Roosevelt had gone 
over it he said he intended to reply to Mr. Byran's 
criticism either in a statement or in a speech. 



CHAPTER VIII. 
ARREST, APPEARS IN COURT. 

Within five minutes after he had fired the bul- 
let into ex-President Roosevelt's right side, John 
Flammang Schrank was on his way in the auto 
police patrol to the central police station, Mil- 
waukee. 

Those who overpowered Schrank were Elbert 
E. Martin, Capt. A. O. Girard, Col. Cecil Lyon of 
Texas, Sergeant Albert Murray of the Milwaukee 
police department and Detectives Harry Ridenour, 
Louis Hartman and Valentine Skierawski of the 
Milwaukee police department. 

The thousands who were in the vicinity of the 
shooting clamored for Schrank's life. _ 

Capt. Girard and Sergeant Murray fought oflP 
the crowd and literally dragged Schrank into the 
Hotel Gilpatrick through the main entrance, 
through the lobby and into the hotel kitchen. 

Here Schrank was left in charge of Capt. 
Girard and Herman Rollfink while Sergeant Mur-^ 
ray telephoned the central police station for the 
auto patrol. Upon its arrival Schrank was hustled 
into it and taken to the central station. 

Schrank having disappeared, the crowd about 
the hotel hurried to the Auditorium. This vast 



92 The Attempted Assassination of 

building was filled to capacity, 9,000, and at least 
15,000 were outside unable to even get to the doors, 
which had been closed and locked by attendants 
at 8 o'clock. 

When Schrank was first questioned at the cen- 
tral station he declined to give his name. Within 
a short time, however, under supervision of Chief 
John T. Janssen, he submitted to an examination, 
which appears in full in another chapter. 

Schrank necessarily was roughly handled im- 
mediately after firing the shot. He clung to the 
revolver until it was wrenched from him, and at 
one time he was beneath a pile of struggling men in 
the street car tracks immediately in front of Hotel 
Gilpatrick. 

One of the detectives, in his efforts to get hold 
of Schrank, was carried down with Schrank be- 
neath this struggling mass of men. 

When Schrank arrived at the central station he 
was little the worse for his rough handling, except 
that his clothing was badly soiled, his collar torn 
ofif and his hair disheveled. He looked as though 
he were glad he had been rescued from the crowd 
crying for his life. 

Searched at the central station the following 
letter was found in a coat pocket: 

"To the People of the United States: 
"September 15, 1901—1:30 A. M. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 93 

"In a dream I saw President McKinley sit up 
in his coffin pointing at a man in a monk's attire in__ 
whom I recognized Theodore Roosevelt. The 
dead president said — This is my murderer — avenge 
my death. 

"September 14, 1912—1 :30 A. M. 

"While writing a poem some one tapped me on 
the shoulder and said — let not a murderer take the 
presidential chair, avenge my death. I could clear- 
ly see Mr. McKinley's features. Before the Al- 
mighty God, I swear that the above written is noth- 
ing but the truth. 

"So long as Japan could rise to be one of the 
greatest powers of the world despite her surviving 
a tradition more than 2,000 years old, as Gen. Nogi 
demonstrated, it is the duty of the United States of 
America to see that the third termer be regarded 
as a traitor to the American cause. Let it be the 
right and duty of every citizen to forcibly remove 
a third termer. 

"Never let a third term party emblem appear 
on an official ballot. I am willing to die for my 
country. God has called me to be his instrument, 
so help me God. 

"Innocent— Guilty.'' 

On a sheet of paper taken from the man when 
he was searched at the central station, the police 



94 The Attempted Assassination of 

found a list of nine hotels where he is supposed to 
have stopped recently. 

The following is the list: Mosely hotel, 
Charleston, S. C. ; Planters hotel, Augusta, Ga. ; 
Childs' hotel, Atlanta, Ga. ; Plaza hotel, Birming- 
ham, Ala.; Redmon hotel, Chattanooga, Tenn.; 
Third Avenue hotel, Rome, Tenn.; Bismark hotel, 
Nashville, Tenn.; Station hotel, Evansville, Ind., 
and the Normandy hotel, Louisville, Ky. 

At 10:35 o'clock on the morning of October 
15 Schrank was taken to District court before 
Judge N. B. Neelen. He admitted that he had 
fired the bullet which hit ex-President Roosevelt, 
and he was bound over to the December term of 
Municipal court, with bail fixed at $7,500. Bail 
was later raised to $15,000. 

Before Schrank appeared in court District At- 
torney Winifred C. Zabel said: 

"So far as I have been able to determine from 
several examinations, John Schrank is legally 
sane," declared District Attorney W. C. Zabel, in 
discussing Theodore Roosevelt's would-be assas- 
sin, yesterday. 

"He has a perfect knowledge of right and 
wrong and realizes that the act he committed was 
against the law. Medically he may have a slight 
aberration, but only experts could determine that. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 95 

"Schrank will have as fair a trial under the law 
as any other man. He has been given ample time 
in which to prepare his case, and, if he does not 
engage an attorney himself, one will be appointed 
to defend him." 

Schrank expressed no desire to be tried in a 
hurry. The revolver from which the shot had been 
fired, together with the shirt and underwear worn 
by Col. Roosevelt were brought into court and ex- 
hibited by Detective Louis Hartman. 

At the suggestion of others, Judge Neelen or- 
dered the revolver and bullets taken to Dean R. E. 
W. Sommers, Marquette university, for chemical 
analysis to determine whether the bullets were 
poisoned. 

Schrank seemed unconcerned over the crime 
he had committed. 

"You are charged with assault with intent to 
kill and murder," said District Attorney Zabel. 
"What do you plead, guilty or not guilty?" 

"I am guilty," answered Schrank quietly. 

The court then explained to Schrank that he 
was charged with a serious offense, and had the 
right to ask for an adjournment and time in which 
to obtain legal counsel and prepare a defense. 

"I understand that," said Schrank. "I plead 
guilty and waive examination." 



96 The Attempted Assassination of 

"Then you are bound over to the municipal 
court under bonds of $5,000," said the court. 
Schrank was then asked if he wanted a speedy trial. 

"No, I don't want one at once," was the reply. 
"I wish to have some time." 

"We will give you plenty of time. You will be 
tried during the December term of the Municipal 
court." 

As Schrank was being led back to the prisoners' 
"pen," one of the newspaper men standing, remem- 
bering that President McKinley died because of a 
poisoned bullet, reminded the court that it might 
be well to have the bullets in Schrank's revolver 
chemically analyzed. 

"Oh, if that's the case, it makes it much more 
serious," said the court. "Infection might set in. 
I'll raise the bail from $5,000 to $7,500." 

A crowd of not more than 200 was seated in the 
courtroom when Schrank's case was called, the gen- 
eral impression being that he would not be exam- 
ined before October 16. When his name was called 
every one in the room pushed forward, and it was 
necessary for the deputies and policemen to use 
force to push them back of the railing. 

When in the "bullpen" Schrank's fellow pris- 
oners shrank away from him. They knew of his at- 
tempt to assassinate the former president, and he 
was an outcast, even among his own kind. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 97 

He was led from the courtroom by Sheriff Ar- 
nold and a special corps of deputies, the officials 
fearing violence, to the county jail, where he was 
lodged in a cell on the first floor. 

Schrank on his arrival in Milwaukee registered 
at the Argyle hotel, 270 West Water street, and was 
assigned to room number 1. He paid for his room 
in advance and was very seldom seen at the hotel 
thereafter. 

His meals, according to the clerk, he took out- 
side. The clerk said the only time the man was 
seen about the hotel was when he walked in and 
out. 

He was registered under the name of "Albert 
Ross," which name he has registered under in a 
number of hotels at which he stopped while follow- 
ing Col. Roosevelt about the country. 

Without a tremor in his voice and talking will- 
ingly in the central station, Schrank unfolded the 
fact that he had at one time been engaged to be 
married to Miss Elsie Ziegler, New York, one of 
the victims of the General Slocum steamboat dis- 
aster, in which over a thousand lives were lost. 

As he spoke of the girl his voice softened and 
his eyes sought the floor of his cell. His lips seemed 
to quiver slightly, the first evidence of remorse 
since his arrest. 



98 The Attempted Assassination of 

Asked if the fact that the girl had lost her life 
during the disaster had anything to do with the act 
he clenched his hands and with an angry jerk of his 
head almost shouted his answer to the questioner. 

"She had nothing to do with it," he exclaimed. 
"She was a beautiful girl and I want you to under- 
stand that her soul is cleared from any part of this 
act." 

The five sets of finger prints were taken by the 
police at the request of police departments of other 
cities. 

The warrant under which Schrank was arrested 
read as follows: 

"John Schrank, being then and there armed 
with a dangerous weapon, to-wit, a loaded revolver, 
did then and there, unlawfully, wilfully and felo- 
niously make an assault in and upon one, Theodore 
Roosevelt, with said loaded revolver, with intent, 
then and there, him, the said Theodore Roosevelt, 
unlawfully, willingly and feloniously and of his 
malice aforethought to kill and murder." 

The crime with which Schrank still is charged 
reads as follows : 

"Assault with intent to murder or rob. Section 
4376. Any person being armed with a dangerous 
weapon who shall assault another with intent to rob 
or murder shall be punished by imprisonment in 
the state prison not more than fifteen years nor less 
than one year." 



CHAPTER IX. 

APPEARS IN MUNICIPAL COURT. 

November 13 Schrank appeared in Municipal 
court before Judge August C. Backus. Two ses- 
sions of court, lasting only a few minutes each, were_ 
necessary to dispose of Schrank's preliminary heal- 
ing. At 10 o'clock the court heard Schrank's plea 
of guilty, and took recess until 2 o'clock, when the 
following physicians were appointed to look into 
the prisoner's mental condition: Drs. F. C. Stud- 
ley, Dr. W. F. Becker, Dr. Richard Dewey, Dr. 
W. F. Wegge, and Dr. D. W. Harrington, all of 
Milwaukee. 

The court also appointed Attorney James G. 
Flanders to represent Schrank. 

At both sessions of the court, Schrank appeared 
perfectly at ease, walking inside the bar with a 
jaunty air, chin up and a curious look on his face. 
His appearance had changed considerably since 
the night he shot the ex-President. Then his cloth- 
ing was torn and bedraggled, his gair unkempt, 
face unshaven and his expression wild. 

In Municipal court he was neatly dressed in a 
carefully pressed suit of blue serge, shoes shined, 
clean linen and spotless white tie, with a white 
handkerchief peeping out of a side coat pocket. 





Johnston Emergency Hospital, Milwaukee. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 101 

He had been cleanly shaven and his hair was care- 
fully pasted down, while in his hands he carried a 
new fedora hat and a raincoat. 

As he was led to the front of the courtroom by 
Deputy Sheriff Albert Melms, everyone in the 
crowd stared at him, but the prisoner walked with 
a firm step, and looked neither to the right nor left. 
It was only when he was called before the bar and 
asked to plead, that he wavered, and then only for 
an instant. Judge Backus ordered him to stand and 
listen to the charge made against him, reciting that 
"John Schrank, on Oct. 14, with malice afore- 
thought, did attempt to kill and murder Theodore 
Roosevelt." 

"What do you plead to that, guilty or not guil- 
ty?" asked District Attorney W. C. Zabel. 

"I plead guilty to the shooting," answered the 
prisoner in a voice that was slightly husky. 

"Did you intend to kill Theodore Roosevelt?" 
asked Mr. Zabel. 

Here the prisoner's voice became steady again, 
and he answered : 

"I did not intend to kill the citizen Roosevelt." 

"Did you intend to kill the candidate Roose- 
velt?" 

"I intended to kill Theodore Roosevelt, the 
third termer," was the answer. "I did not want to 



102 The Attempted Assassination of 

kill the candidate of the Progressive party. I shot 
Roosevelt as a warning to other third termers." 

"There we have it," broke in the court, and 
Schrank was told that he might take his seat. 

District Attorney Zabel moved that the court 
either appoint a commission of alienists to examine 
Schrank or have him tried before a jury. Judge 
Backus announced that he would appoint a com- 
mission of five experts at 2 o'clock, and took a 
recess, ordering the deputies to take Schrank back 
to the county jail. As the prisoner arose to leave 
many of those in the courtroom rushed for the door, 
but all fell back when the court said: 

^ "Let no man leave the courtroom until the pris- 
oner has left the city hall." 

At the afternoon session Schrank was simply 
brought in and allov^^ed to sit at one of the tables. 
When the physicians who are to examine him arose 
to be sworn, he eyed them curiously, but evinced 
no outward signs of emotion. 

The court allowed the alienists as much time as 
they desired to make the examination of the pris- 
oner, and ordered the sherilT to allow them to see 
Schrank whenever they wished. The prisoner also 
was given an opportunity to confer with liis at- 
torney. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 103 

The decision which the alienists were to reach, 
as ordered by the court, was whether "the defend- 
ant, John Schrank, is sane at the present time." 

District Attorney Zabel announced that the fol- 
lowing had been subpoenaed as witnesses: Detec- 
tives Louis Hartman, and Valentine Skierawski; 
Dr. Robert G. Sayle and Dr. T. W. Williams, 
Emergency hospital, who attended Col. Roosevelt; 
Capt. A. O. Girard and John Campbell, Rescue 
Mission, an eyewitness. 

Mr. Zabel received several letters and tele- 
grams from New York asking for leniency, and 
commending Schrank's action. 

Several were sent with the request that they be 
handed to the attorney who would defend the 
prisoner. 

People all over the country sent letters to Dis- 
trict Attorney W. C. Zabel advising him how to 
handle Schrank. 

"Think of all the brains that are uniting with 
mine in trying to determine how to handle this 
case," said Mr. Zabel, with a laugh. "And the 
best part of it is that it's not costing the city or 
county a cent either. How do you like this one," 
handing over a letter which said: 

"For God's sake, don't let any Catholic priest 
get near him." 



104 The Attempted Assassination of 

Another said: "Hang him up by the thumbs. 
No punishment is too horrible for such a man." 

A third man looked with suspicion upon the 
Socialist district attorney, and believed that he read 
something wrong in the statement that Schrank 
would not be placed on trial immediately. 

"Probably Schrank is not so crazy after all," 
this man wrote." And then he insinuated that 
Schrank very carefully planned to commit the deed 
in a state where there is no capital punishment and 
in a county — the only one in the country — in which 
"there is a Socialist district attorney." 

Still another advised the district attorney to 
look into the minutest details, as he saw some big 
rich and powerful influence back of Schrank which 
had urged him on to the crime. 

"These are only a few of the letters I received 
from men who are probably in as bad a mental 
state as they seem to think Schrank is," said the dis- 
trict attorney. 



CHAPTER X. 
SCHRANK DECLARED INSANE. 

On November 22 Schrank was declared insane 
by the five alienists who had examined him. He 
appeared in Municipal court and was committed 
to the Northern Hospital for the Insane at Osh- 
kosh, Wis., by Judge August C. Backus in the fol- 
lowing order: 

"findings of the COURT: 

"The court now finds that the defendant John 
Schrank is insane, and therefore incapacitated to 
act for himself. 

"It is Therefore Ordered and Adjudged, 
that the defendant John Schrank be committed to 
the Northern Hospital for Insane, near Oshkosh, 
in the county of Winnebago, state of Wisconsin, 
until such time when he shall have recovered from 
such insanity, when he shall be returned to this 
court for further proceedings according to law. 

"And it is Further Ordered, that all proceed- 
ings in this case be stayed indefinitely and until 
such recovery. 

"It is Further Ordered, that the sheriff of 
Milwaukee county is hereby ordered to convey the 
said John Schrank to the said Northern Hospital 



106 The Attempted Assassination of 

for Insane, near Oshkosh, in the county of Winne- 
bago, state of Wisconsin, and there to deliver him 
to the superintendent thereof and the said super- 
intendent is hereby ordered and directed to receive 
the said John Schrank as an inmate of said hospital 
and there to keep him until he has recovered from 
such insanity, when he shall be returned to this 
court for further proceedings as provided by law." 

Schrank expressed the keenest disappointment 
both on the report of the insanity commission and 
also on the judgment of the court. 

"Why didn't they give me my medicine right 
away, instead of making me wait," he exclaimed 
bitterly as he was led to the county jail. "I did it, 
and I am willing to stand the consequences of my 
act. 

"I want to say now that I am sane, and know 
what I am doing all the time. I am not a lunatic, 
and never was one." 

Schrank ofifered no defense. Before the judg- 
ment of the court was pronounced he was asked if 
he had any statement to make. 

"I have nothing to say," he said clearly. 

While Judge Backus was reading the judgment, 
Schrank sat with bowed head. His fingers twitched 
nervously, but otherwise he gave no outward sign. 
As the deputy sheriffs led him away, he stopped 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 107 

and insisted upon shaking hands with each one of 
the five alienists. 

Although Schrank was not called to the witness 
stand during the inquisition yesterday afternoon, 
District Attorney W. C. Zabel introduced testi- 
mony to show Schrank's every movement in Mil- 
waukee, from the time he arrived until the time he 
shot Col. Roosevelt. 

This testimony tended to show that Schrank 
"filled up" on beer just before he committed the 
act, although each of the witnesses insisted that he 
was not intoxicated at the time he did the shooting. . 
One policeman said that he was dazed, but was not 
intoxicated. 

The testimony showed that Schrank spent the 
early part of the evening he shot Col. Roosevelt in 
the saloon of Herman RoUfink, 215 Third street, 
where he posed as a newspaper man "out on an 
investigating trip." 

"Schrank came into the saloon at 3 o'clock in 

the afternoon and drank five or six beers," testified 

" Paul Thume, a bartender. "He told me he was a 

newspaper man, and to prove it, he pointed to the 

newspapers in his pockets. 

"We got to talking, and I told him I was going 
out west to earn some money. He advised me to go 
south to make money. He wanted a place to room. 



108 The Attempted Assassination of 

but when I recommended a room for $1 a day, he 
kicked. Said he was willing to pay 75 cents. 

"He came in again at 7 o'clock in the evening 
and we talked some more. He then asked the bar 
musicians to play some song, something with stripes 
in it, and then he bought each one a drink." 

For the first time during the hearing, Schrank 
smiled. It started in a broad smile, and then ex- 
tended until it covered his entire face. It devel- 
oped that he asked the musicians to play the "Star 
Spangled Banner," which the bartender described 
as a song having "stripes" in it. 

Schrank left the saloon only a few minutes be- 
fore he did the shooting, after having again treated 
all to drinks. 

The testimony of the barkeeper was substan- 
tiated by two musicians, Frank Galk and James 
Crawford, who said that Schrank danced around 
while they were playing. 

Herman RoUfink told how he jumped on 
Schrank after the shooting and blocked the door to 
the kitchen in the hotel after Schrank had been 
carried in there. 
^ Capt. Alfred O. Girard said: 

"I saw Schrank in the crowd just as I was get- 
ting into Col. Roosevelt's automobile. I saw him 
as he raised the gun up between two men. I saw the 
flash, and almost simultaneously, I sprang upon 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 109 

him. After taking him into the hotel, we searched 
him, but found no other weapons." 

Three policemen were placed on the stand as 
witnesses, and each one insisted that he was not de- 
tailed to service there, but had been attracted to the 
spot by the crowd. 

This tended to show that Col. Roosevelt had no 
police protection while he was in Milwaukee. 

Robert M. Lenten, clerk at the Argyle hotel, 
recognized Schrank as the guest who signed his 
name as Albert Ross. 

"He came to the hotel about 10:15 Sunday 
night and I assigned him to room No. 1," he said. 
"He did not act unusual, and we talked as I showed^, 
him to his room. The room is right above the Mil- 
waukee river, so I told him he had better keep 
away from the window, if he didn't want to fall 
into the 'Wabash.' That's the name we give to the 



river." 



This struck Schrank as funny and he laughed 
again. 

The report of the alienists was filed with the 
court just before 10 o'clock in the morning. It in- 
cluded fifty pages of typewritten matter, and its 
reading consumed nearly two hours. After the re- 
port was read, the alienists were placed on the stand 
and questioned by the district attorney. 




Judge August C. Backus. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 111 

Schrank listened to the reading of the report 
without the slightest sign of interest, until the clerk 
read the findings pronouncing him insane. 

Schrank was taken to the Northern Hospital 
for the Insane, Oshkosh, by Deputy Sheriff Rich- 
ard Muldenhauer and Fred Becker, bookkeeper in 
the sheriff's office, on the morning of November 
25, at 1 1 o'clock. 

The three left the sheriff's office in an automo- 
bile shortly before 1 1 o'clock and arrived at the 
Chicago & Northwestern depot, Milwaukee, a few 
minutes before train time. 

Before leaving the jail Schrank asked for the 
sheriff and thanked him for his kindness during his 
confinement in the county jail. He also shook 
hands with Jailer Adam Roth and deputies who 
have been with him during the trial. 

Schrank's duties at the Northern Hospital for 
the Insane and are light and remain so until the 
physicians of the hospital have had ample time to 
observe him. 



CHAPTER XL 
SHOWS REPENTANCE BUT ONCE. 

Although Schrank's bail finally was fixed at 
$15,000, bail would not have been accepted. This 
was announced by District Attorney Zabel. One of 
the several reasons for raising the bail was that 
motion picture men had planned to pay Schrank's 
bail and secure his release long enough to once 
again go through the shooting for the purpose of 
making a motion picture film of the event. 

"I absolutely refused to sanction such a thing," 
said the district attorney. "It is bad enough to have 
it happen once without perpetuating the deed by 
enacting it once again for the motion picture men. 

"I do not begrudge the earning of the motion 
picture men. What I object to is the demoralizing 
efifect such a picture film would have. It would 
tend to make a hero out of this man, and I don't 
propose that the young shall be allowed to worship 
him as a hero. 

"I understand, however, that a motion picture 
concern, when it found how we had frustrated its 
attempts to secure an actual picture of Schrank 
actually reproduced a scene of taking Schrank from 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 113 

the county jail to the city hall by palming off an- 
other man who resembles Schrank. 

"In order to reproduce a scene of taking him 
from the jail, they picked out a building that re- 
sembled the jail, the Ivanhoe temple. They repro- 
duced Schrank emerging from the 'jail' between 
two bogus deputy sheriffs. Later some one told me 
the same performance was repeated at the city hall 
to convey the impression that the would-be slayer 
was being taken into the city hall and up to the 
courtrooms." 

During the time Schrank was confined in jail 
he showed signs of repentance but once, that was 
on Sunday, October 24, when religious services 
were conducted in the jail. 

The Rev. Mr. Cavanam, a traveling evangelist, 
started the services shortly after 10 o'clock. 
Schrank, who a week before refused to attend serv- 
ices conducted by Christian Endeavorers, was one 
of the first to appear when a hymn was started. 

At the close of the sermon Schrank turned away 
and walked to his cell with head bowed. He en- 
tered the cell and fell on his knees alongside his 
cot. Several of the prisoners who had been walk- 
ing up and down the corridor stopped in amaze- 
ment on seeing Schrank on his knees, but quietly 
walked away until he had finished. 



114 The Attempted Assassination of 

When Miss Alice Evans, a soloist, sang a song, 
Schrank reappeared, and the prisoners noticed a 
happy look on his face which had not been visible 
before during his imprisonment. After the reli- 
gious people had left the jail Schrank mingled 
more than had been his wont with the other pris- 
oners, and seemed to be in high spirits. 

When Gustave Struber delivered an address to 
the prisoners in German Schrank appeared to be 
one of the most attentive hearers, and shook hands 
with the speaker before he left the jail. 

There is nothing about Schrank which portrays 
the human fiend. 

On the contrary, he is a very ordinary type. 
There are hundreds of thousands men of his very 
type, and who are peaceable citizens. 

The only way that Schrank differs from other 
men is in mind. He undoubtedly is a degenerate 
possessing a depraved and diseased mind, but there 
is nothing in his physical make-up that would 
brand him as such. 

Police Chief John T. Janssen, student of human 
nature, penetratingly studied and measured the 
man's features for hours during examinations, and 
arrived at the conclusion that the man was suffer- 
ing from a condition of mind known as paranoia, 
pronounced the most dangerous form of insanity. 

This mental disease makes a man a monoma- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 115 

niac. He is perfectly sane, except upon one sub- 
ject, which controls him and pushes him forward, 
even in some cases, to murder. 

In telling of his crime, there was nothing de- 
fiant about Schrank. He displayed no bravado. 
He told everything in a frank tone of voice — too 
frank, almost, as it raised the suspicion that prob- 
ably Schrank was not a mad man. 

There is nothing about him that would cause 
any passer-by to glance at Schrank twice. And his 
face is the most uninteresting part of him. 

His face is fat and round — moon-shaped. His 
eyes are placed wide apart, but this effect is lost 
through ptosis, a species of paralysis of the eyelids, 
which gives the eyes a half closed appearance, and 
is responsible for the sleepy look in his face. It 
affects one eye more than the other and is respon- 
sible for that squint which has been designated as 
"a murderous squint" by sensationalists. 

His nose is rather large and prominent. Con- 
tinued application of the handkerchief has caused 
it to turn almost sharply to the left. 

His weak mouth finishes off what would other- 
wise be a fairly good face. Cover mouth and chin 
and one will say that he has the strong face of the 
ordinary American workingman. His lips, for the 
most part, are closed, but in an irregular line, giv- 
ing the idea that his jaws are hanging loosely. 



116 The Attempted Assassination of 

Altogether, he is not a repulsive looking man. 
Merely a weak looking man. Laughs and grins 
come readily during his conversations. 

The only remarkable feature about him is his 
knowledge of American history and politics. He 
is able to talk intelligently upon modern political 
questions, showing that he is a great reader along 
these lines. 

The more one looks at him and studies him, the 
more one wonders what it is that could have 
pressed him forward to commit such a deed. 

Nothing explains his weak character more than 
his hesitancy to fire the shot at Chattanooga. He 
had traveled miles to do it, and at the last minute 
his courage oozed out. The same thing happened 
in Chicago. He stood at Hotel La Salle with mur- 
der in his heart, but hesitated until it was too late. 

And when he struck Milwaukee, he acted just 
like a boy afraid to coast down a big hill, who, 
finally impelled by the taunts of his comrades, 
closes his eyes and starts. 

Look down through history and you find that 
the most atrocious crimes were committed by weak 
persons of the same caliber as John Flammang 
Schrank. 



CHAPTER XIL 
SCHRANK BEFORE CHIEF. 

John Flammang Schrank was taken to the central police 
station, Milwaukee, immediately upon his arrest in front of the 
Hotel Gilpatrick. Under direction of Chief John T. Janssen, 
of the Milwaukee police department, the following examination 
of Schrank was conducted : 

Chief. What is your name ? 

A. Do I have to tell that tonight, sir? 

Q. Yes. 

A. I have to ? 

Q. Yes. 

A. I have given the man below the promise I will do that 
tomorrow, tell him all I know. 

Q. Well, there is no reason for you to do that tomorrow, 
if you do it this evening it will facilitate matters. 

A. I suppose I will inconvenience someone by not telling. 

Q. Yes, you are helping a good deal by telling. 

A. Well, I come from New York. 

Q. WTiat is your name? 

A. John Schrank. 

Q. When did you come here from New York? 

A. I left New York on the twenty-first of September and 
I left for Charleston and I left my grip there in the Hotel 
Mosely ; from Charleston to Augusta and from there to Atlanta 
and from Atlanta I think to Birmingham and over to Chatta- 
nooga, and from Chattanooga I went to Nashville and then to 
Evansville, and then to Louisville, and then to Chicago, and 
from Chicago here, and I arrived here Sunday at one o'clock. 

Q. Why did you go to all those places? 

A. Because I wanted to meet that man. 

Q. What man? 

A. Theodore Roosevelt. 

Q, How long have you lived in New York? 

A. About twenty-five years. 

Q. What is your business? 



118 The Attempted Assassination of 

A. Well, I am not doing anything now, I have been in the 
liquor business. 

Q. Where? 

A. In New York. 

Q. What place ? 

A. Tenth street. 

Q. Give us the number please? 

A. Three hundred seventy, East Tenth street, between 
avenues B and C ; I have been with my uncle ; my uncle's name 
is Flammang. 

Q. Are you a married man? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. How long have you been in the liquor business? 

A. Well, ever since I was a boy. My folks were in busi- 
ness the time I come over here and I was twelve years old then. 

Q. How old are you now? 

A. Thirty-six. 

Q. Well, what object did you have in following around 
and trying to meet Theodore Roosevelt ? 

A. Well, because I have been reading history and follow- 
ing up history and I have seen that this man Roosevelt is trying 
to break one of the old established traditions of the country, 
calling it a third termer, which he has no right to ; he can 
create a third party and create all the offices, but to nominate 
himself it was absolutely out of the way and I think today that 
it is absolutely unnecessary to establish now and have the third 
tradition to exist and not to be violated by anybody. 

Q. Well, what did you have in mind to do when you went 
around in these different places? 

A. I had in mind to meet him and he escaped me every 
time; he escaped me in Atlanta and Chattanooga. 

Q. He escaped what? 

A. He has not come the w^ay I expected, he did not come 
out the way I expected ; if he goes in a hall today and speaks 
in a hall and he come in this way or that way he goes out a 
different way and the man got away. 

Q. What did he escape from? 

A. From the places I wanted to meet him ? 

Q. Why did you want to meet him? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 119 

A. Because I wanted to put him out of the way, A man 
that wants a third term has no right to live. 

Q. That is, you wanted to kill him? 

A. I did. 

Q. Have you any other reason in wanting to kill him? 

A. I have. 

Q. What is that? 

A. I had a dream several years ago that Mr. McKinley 
appeared to me and he told me that Mr. Roosevelt is prac- 
tically his real murderer and not this here Czolgosz, or what- 
ever his name was, Mr. Roosevelt is practically the man that 
has been the real murderer of President McKinley in order to 
get the presidency of the United States, because the way things 
were that time he was not supposed to be a president; all the 
leaders did not want him, that's the reason they give him the 
vice-presidency, which is political suicide; and that's what I am 
sore about, to think Mr. McKinley appeared to me in a dream 
and said, "this is my murderer and nobody else." 

Q. Did you speak with anybody in New York about this 
before you left? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. You made your mind up to this all yourself? 

A. Yes, because I am alone, although I own property in 
New York. 

Q. What property ? 

A. I own property in four hundred thirty-three East 
Eighty-first street. 

Q. What does it consist of ? 

A. It consists of an apartment house with ten tenants ; it's 
estimated at twenty-five thousand dollars. 

Q. Did you attend any political meetings in New York 
before you left? 

A. I attended several, yes, sir; ever since I was coming 
across the country; I had political meetings in Evansville, In- 
diana, of the three political parties. 

Q. Who furnished you with the funds that you needed to 
travel around the country? 

A. I beg your pardon, I was just telling you I have prop- 
erty there and had the money. 




Winifred C. Zabel, 
District Attorney Milwaukee County. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 121 

Q. Have you any money now ? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. When did you run out? 

A. I just took this three hundred dollars to go around and 
all I saved up is one hundred forty dollars. 

Q. Where did you leave that? 

A. I left that here. 

Q. Well, why did you come here; oh, this was yesterday? 

A. I came here Sunday at one o'clock in order to find out 
in the city where he was going to speak and Vv'here I could 
meet him. 

Q. You never were married? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. You said a minute ago you weren't doing anything 
now; when did you go out of business? 

A. I am out of business going on two years, living off the 
income of the property. 

Q. And that is sufficient to keep you ? 

A. Sufficient to keep me as long as I keep in my limits. 

Q. How much is the property worth? 

A. Well, it has been worth for twentj'-five, supposed to 
be worth at twenty-five and taxed at twenty-five thousand. 

Q. How much is the income you derive from it? 

A. Around eight hundred dollars a year. 

Q. And do you live with your brother when you are at 
home? 

A. I have no brother. I have been living for the past 
seven months in one hundred fifty-six Canal street. New York, 
that's a hotel. 

Q. What is the name of the hotel? 

A. White House they call it; the owner of the hotel is 
Jost, Gustav, Gustav Jost. 

Q. How long you been living there? 

A. I think seven months. 

Q. Is there a bar connected with the place? 

A. Oh, indeed. 

Q. Have you been drinking lately? 

A. No, sir; no, sir; that ain't my habit. 

Q. What is your favorite drink when you do ? 



122 The Attempted Assassination of 

A. Beer. 

Q. If you had your mind set upon shooting Mr. Roosevelt, 
how does it come that you had to follow him to so many places 
before you came here? 

A. As I have been telling you a minute ago, he escaped me 
many a time, he escaped me in Chicago. 

Q. By leaving the place where he spoke by some other 
door ? 

A. By some other door and I was watching and he didn't 
come out that way and it was advertised by the papers he would 
come on the Northwestern and instead he come on the St. Paul. 

Q. Where did you buy the revolver? 

A. In New York. 

Q. When? 

A. On Saturday the twenty-first. 

Q. And j^ou bought it with the object in view of shooting 
Mr. Roosevelt? 

A. Yes, sir; exactly. 

Q. Where did you buy it? 

A. I could not really tell you where I bought it, in Broad- 
way, I know it's below Canal street, but I could not tell you 
the name. 

Q. What's the make? 

A. Colt; thirty-eight caliber; it's where you turn the bar- 
rel to the side way, it's none of those you open this way. 

Q. What kind of place, a hardware store or gun shop? 

A. No, sir ; nothing but guns ; I paid fourteen dollars for it. 

Q. Did you ever discuss this matter with any other person 
of what you intended to do ? 

A. No, sir; no, sir. 

Q. You didn't speak to anyone? 

A. I discussed as far as the political discussion is con- 
cerned, but I never give anybody a hint that I was going to do 
this, that was all my own make-up. 

Q, You didn't tell anybody why you bought the revolver? 

A. No, sir ; nobody knew I bought a revolver. 

Q. In this dream that you had, McKinley told you that it 
wasn't Czolgosz that killed McKinley. but it was Roosevelt? 

A. Well, he says in this way, "this is my murderer." 



Ex-PresUent Theodore Roosevelt 123 

Q. Did )'0u ever meet Czolgosz or know him in his life- 
time? 

A. No, sir; no, sir; how could I. I have been all that 
time since I have been here in New York. 

Q. Did you know John Most when he was alive? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you ever hear him talk? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you ever hear Emma Goldman? 

A. No, sir; I am not an anarchist or socialist or democrat 
or republican; I just took up the thing the way I thought it 
v/as best to do. 

Q. You are not a member of any party? 

A. No, sir ; I thought there should be an example of the 
third term if it should exist any longer; Mr. Grant was refused 
and he was satisfied ; this man was refused and he is not satis- 
fied ; it's gone beyond limits ; if he keeps on doing this after 
election, he can't possibly carry a solid western state; the next 
thing we will have is a Civil War, because he will say the 
scoundrels and thieves and crooks stole my nomination and now 
they will steal my election, and they will take up arms in all the 
western states; we are facing a civil war just to keep him in a 
third term, in an illegitimate place. 

Q. Where did you get all this idea from? 

A. I have been reading history all the time. 

Q. You don't find that anywhere in history that they stole 
his nomination and going to steal his election ? 

A. I don't have to read that in history; you must know in 
the Chicago convention it was in every paper, everybody could 
read it. 

Q. You read it in the paper then ? 

A. He says it every time he speaks. 

Q. What paper do j-ou read at home in New York ? 

A. The World. 

Q. Is that the only paper you read ? 

A. I read German papers and every paper I got, but the 
regular paper is the World. 

Q. What country do you hail from? 

A. Germany. 



124 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. What part of Germany? 

A. Bavaria. 

Q. What is the name of the place? 

A. Two hours from Munich; Munich is the capital of 
Bavaria. 

Q. What is the name of the place? 

A. Erding. 

Q. What schooling did j'ou have? 

A. Well, I have attended school in the old country and I 
attended night school in New York for about four winters ; 
that's all the schooling I had. 

Q. You haven't a very good education then? 

A. Indeed I ain't. 

Q. Have you always enjoyed good health ? 

A. Yes, sir; I am a healthy, sane man, never been sick. 

Q. Never been sick? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Ever been sick within the last year? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Well, do you believe that that's a sane act that you 
committed this evening? 

A. I believe that is my duty as a citizen to do, it's the 
duty of every citizen to do so. 

Q. Well, how did you happen to get the idea that it was 
your duty among all the people that live in the United States? 

A. I don't know; I thought maybe somebody else might 
do it before I got there. 

Q. And you spoke to no one about your intention on all 
the route you took concerning this, nobody? 

A. No, sir; nobody. 

Q. Are you familiar with the law in New York with 
reference to carrying concealed weapons? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What is it? 

A. I know when I bought the gun the man told me, "I 
have to take that one screw out in order to make the trigger 
ineffective" and I told him not to do so because I was going 
to leave town the very same day, which I did. 

Q. He didn't take it out? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 125 

A. No, sir; he didn't do it; I showed him the ticket for 
the steamship that I was going south the very same day and he 
said as long as I was going out the law didn't fit that. 

Q. Where were you going to ? 

A. To Charleston. 

Q. On the steamship to Charleston ? 

A. Yes, sir ; I wanted to go from New York to New 
Orleans because I thought he was going to speak in New 
Orleans and I thought I would be too long on the road and 
he would be gone before I got there and I thought I would 
go and get him at Atlanta. 

Q. What hotel did Mr. Roosevelt stop at in Charleston? 

A. Sir? 

Q. What hotel? 

A. He hasn't been at Charleston; I went to Augusta 
and from Augusta to Atlanta. 

Q. What hotel did he stop at at Atlanta? 

A. I really could not tell you, I don't know; I think I 
left the memorandum dov/nstairs where I stopped, but I don't 
think I could tell you where he stopped. 

Q. What hotel did he stop at at Chicago? 

A. At Chicago, at Chicago he stopped, stopped at La Salle. 

Q. Where did 3^ou stop? 

A. I stopped at Jackson, Hotel Jackson. 

Q. Where is he going to after he leaves here? 

A. The way I read in the paper this morning he is going 
back to Chicago and from there to Indianapolis and from there 
to Louisville. 

Q. What name did you register under at Augusta? 

A. Walter Ross. 

Q. What name at Atlanta? 

A. All the way except Charleston I give my real name; 
the only time I give the right name is in Charleston where I 
left my grip; I saw it was a respectable house and I didn't have 
to stay away more than a week and now I have been away 
more than three weeks. 

Q. Have you a check for it? 

A. No, sir ; I have no check ; it is not a hotel, it is a 
boarding-house. 



126 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. What street is it on? 

A. It is I believe on Meading street near Main. 

Q. What place did you stop at since you have been in 
this city? 

A. In this city I stopped here, let me see, what do they 
call that hotel again, right here on Wabash, small hotel. 

Q. Blatz? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. St. Charles? 

A. No, sir ; small place, Argyle, that's on Third street. 

Q. Did you have any baggage w^hen you came here? 

A. No, sir; I left all the baggage at Charleston. 

Q. When you registered did they ask you whether you had 
any baggage? 

A. No, sir; nobody asked me. 

Q. Did you pay in advance? 

A. I generally never staj'ed any longer than one or two 
nights and for every night I pay a dollar for my room ; nobody 
asked me about baggage. 

Q. You paid that after you registered at the Argyle? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What room did you occupy? 

A. In the Argyle I guess it was number one, right toward 
the Wabash River. 

Q. Why do you call it the Wabash River? 

A. Because the man told me it was; he said, "the only 
room I have left is the one facing the Wabash River." 

Q. What is the name of this city? 

A. This city, it's supposed to be Milwaukee; I feel very 
sorry that the trouble has happened in this city; I suppose I 
have made considerable trouble for you people and for the 
citizens of the town. 

Q. Have you any relatives living in this country? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Any in Germany? 

A. Yes, sir ; I think I have, I haven't been in correspon- 
dence for quite a while, I don't know if they are well. 

Q. What relatives have you? 

A. I have a mother living there. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 127 

Q. Mother? 

A. Yes, brother and sister. 

Q. At Erding? 

A. No, they are at Tyrol. 

Q. Switzerland ? 

A. Tyrol that is not Switzerland, that is Bavarian Tyrol. 

Q. Have you ever been in trouble before? 

A. No, sir; not that I remember. 

Q. Ever been arrested for anything? 

A. Not in my life. 

Q. Have you ever been committed to an institution of 
any kind ? 

A. No, sir ; never, I have always stayed out of trouble, 
I have never been in any trouble whatever, and this trouble I 
committed myself, now I am contented I did. 

Q. You are not a bit sorry? 

A. No, sir. You may look up the records of all New 
York police headquarters, because I have never been there, I 
have never been arrested there. 

Q, What did you say your name was? 

A. John Schrank. 

Q. Did you tell anybody that you were going to leave 
your baggage there? 

A. I told them people I was going to stay away for about 
three daj'S. 

Q. Did you make any arrangement for them to send it in 
case you wrote for it? 

A. No, sir; I stopped there two days and paid eight dol- 
lars in advance for a week's board, and I dressed up and went 
away and I told the people I might be back in three days and 
of course ever since then they didn't hear anything of me and 
I guess if they do hear and I can communicate they will give 
it over and all perhaps they will charge is the storage. 

Q. Why did you tell them you were going to be gone 
three days? 

A. I didn't think it would take longer than three days 
when I would be away, 

Q. Then you thought you would go back? 

A. I thought I would be arrested, I couldn't tell. 



128 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. What does your grip contain? 

A. Nothing but a suit of clothes and underwear and I 
got a deed to my property and as I told you the box where the 
gun is in and that's about all there is in. 

Q. Are you a full citizen? 

A. Sir? 

Q. Are you a full citizen? 

A. What does that mean ? 

Q. Got your second papers? 

A. I never had my first, I come over here a minor ; I got 
my papers when I was twenty-one, I think my paper reads July 
twenty-third, ninety-seven; I think that's what it reads. 

Q. When did you first begin to think about this? 

A. I began to think of it after the Chicago convention. 

Q. What caused you to think of it? 

A. I thought on account of calling a new convention and 
starting the third party that makes anj^body think; what's the 
use of being a citizen if you don't take any interest in the 
politics of our country? 

Q, What did you read in the paper that directed your 
mind to Mr. Roosevelt? 

A. You read a lot of things in the papers and especially in 
the New York World ; the New York World practically come 
out that the country is in danger if he has the chair again. 

Q. Did you read Harper's Weekly? 

A. Harper's I don't read, no, sir. 

Q. Did they say anything in particular that centered your 
attention on this act? 

A. No, sir ; not at all, perhaps a million people read it and 
didn't think anything and I just happened to read the matter 
over, I was interested from there. 

Q. Editorial page? 

A. Editorial page. 

Q. You remember any particular editorial? 

A. No, sir; I do not remember. I could not repeat it. 

Q. Well, did you read anything else in any other paper 
except the World that made any impression on you of Mr. 
Roosevelt ? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 129 

A. Well, in fact I have been following up all papers of 
the political views and I have been taking out the World as the 
right thing, she is right the way she talks and one paper I read, 
the New York Herald, and she never speaks about Theodore 
Roosevelt but the third termer and she don't mention his name, 
only the third termer. 

Q. Did you ever apply for any position in the United 
States Government? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you know Mr. Roosevelt when he was Police 
Commissioner ? 

A, I did, ini :'d I did. In those days we was and my 
folks were in the liquor business and they closed us up like the 
other people and I didn't feel any sympathy with them, 

Q. Which particular place did he close up? 

A. What do you mean ? 

Q. You say he closed up some place of your people, which 
one? 

A. He closed up all places. 

Q. Were you in the liquor business? 

A. I was with my folks. 

Q. With whom? 

A. My uncle. 

Q. He closed your uncle? 

A. He closed everything and there was about two months 
there was nothing open and a policeman stationed at every door. 

Q. That was after midnight and on Sunday? 

A. It was not closed up on Sunday but during the week, 
I am not talking about the Sunday Law. 

Q. And you thought that was not right? 

A. Anybody encroaches on your right you think it is not 
right. 

Q. How long ago was that? 

A. Eighty-six he ran for Mayor against Henry George, 
I think it was nine-three or ninety-four. 

Q. Did the fact of that act of his, of closing you up on 
Sunday, have anything to do with what you done tonight? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. You never felt kindly toward him? 




Dr. Joseph Colt Bloodgood, Johns Hopkins University. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 131 

A. Yes, sir; I did until he started a third party. 

Q. You thought he was infringing on your right? 

A. Well, on everybody's right, every citizen's right, he had 
no right to do that; he could start a party and nominate every 
officer in there, but not put himself on for a third term, that 
was no way to do, 

Q. Did you vote for him in ninetenn hundred four or for 
Parker? 

A. I voted Democratic. 

Q. Parker? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You a member of Tammany? 

A. No, I am not a member, I am not a member of any 
political party; when they arrested me one man called m.e a 
Socialist. 

Q. Did you oppose him in nineteen hundred four? 
A. I voted against him ; I never expected the m.an to draw 
as big a majority as he did. 

Q. Did you make speeches against him ? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Talk against him ? 

A. The same as anybody else. 

Q. "^^ou thought he wasn't liberal? 

A. He was not liberal. 

Q. You didn't like his attitude, you were against him ? 

A. Yes, sir. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
WITNESSES OF THE SHOOTING. 

The following statements of Wheeler P. Blood- 
good, representing the Progressive National com- 
mittee; F. E. Davidson, Milwaukee county chair- 
man of the Progressive party, Capt. A. O. Girard 
and others set forth arrangements for Col. Roose- 
velt's speech in the Auditorium on the night of 
October 14, 1912, and present many facts concern- 
ing the shooting of Col. Roosevelt not before made 
public. 

These statements were made to District Attor- 
ney W. C. Zabel during the examination of 
Schrank conducted by him on Oct. 16. 

The purpose of this hearing was to ascertain 
if possible whether others were with Schrank in the 
plot to kill the ex-president. 

While the examination developed a second man 
who was very anxious to get close to Col. Roose- 
velt during his stay in the Gilpatrick, no other evi- 
dence concerning this second man's connection with 

the shooting was developed. 

* * * 

The following statement by Attorney Wheeler 
P. Bloodgood was made on Oct. 16 to District At- 
torney Zabel : 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 133 

As the acting national committee man of the 
Progressive party in Wisconsin, I called a meeting 
of the Executive Committee in connection with the 
address to be made by Col. Roosevelt in Milwau- 
kee, Oct. 14. By direction of the committee, F. E. 
Davidson, county chairman of Milwaukee County 
of the Progressive party, was put in charge of ar- 
rangements for the meeting, and was directed to 
lease the main hall of the Auditorium in Milwau- 
kee for the evening of Oct. 14. 

After Mr. Davidson, who accompanied Mr. 
Norman L. Baker, state chairman, in engaging the 
hall and making other arrangements, had made his 
report, I discussed with him the question of proper 
police protection for Col. Roosevelt and his party 
while they were in Milwaukee, and Mr. Davidson 
informed me that he and Mr. Paul Heyl, whom he 
had appointed sergeant-at-arms, had taken this 
matter up with the police department of Milwau- 
kee. 

I went to Chicago on the morning of Oct. 14th, 
accompanied by H. E. Miles and others. Col. 
Roosevelt and his party came to Milwaukee. On 
the train from Chicago to Milwaukee I advised 
Colonel Lyon, of Texas, who was in charge of Col. 
Roosevelt's person, that we would be met at the 
depot in Milwaukee by Mr. Davidson, who was in 
charge of the arrangements for the meeting, and by 



134 The Attempted Assassination of 

others, and that they would request that Col. Roose- 
velt have his supper, at least, at the Hotel Gil- 
patrick. I advised them that Mr. Davidson had 
made all of the arrangements in Milwaukee for 
the meeting of the Colonel, and his care, between 
the time of his reaching the city and the holding 
of the meeting at the Auditorium. Col. Lyon and 
O. K. Davis strongly objected to Col. Roosevelt 
leaving his car, and said it was there that he should 
have his dinner and go directly from the car to the 
Auditorium. 

When the Colonel's car reached Racine, Capt. 
Girard got on the train and spoke to me in refer- 
ence to his acting as the Colonel's bodyguard while 
he was in Milwaukee. My recollection is that the 
Colonel was in the back part of the car when the 
captain got on board, and he at once recognized 
the captain and spoke to him as though he were 
greeting an old friend. Then Capt. Girard had a 
talk with Col. Lyon and Mr. O. K. Davis, and it 
was understood that the captain would be with the 
"TTolonel during the whole time he was in Milwau- 
.kee, and it was understood that he was in charge 
of the Colonel's person. 

When the train reached Milwaukee, Mr. Da- 
vidson got on the rear platform and was introduced 
by me to Col. Roosevelt, and he at once said to 
Col. Roosevelt: 



Ex-Fresident Theodore Roosevelt 135 

"The boys are all anxious that you have your 
supper at the Hotel Gilpatrick, and we have made 
arrangements there so that you can rest. The hotel 
is not one of the best known hotels in Milwaukee, 
but it is a quiet and good place. The owner has 
been a great friend of the county committee and 
it would please us all very much if you would 



come." 



The Colonel said to Mr. Davidson and to me 
that he had planned to stay in the car and go di- 
rectly from the car to the Auditorium. As I recall 
it, Col. Lyon, O. K. Davis, Dr. S. L. Terrell spoke 
up and said: 

"That is the arrangement, and that is what will 
have to be done." 

Then the Colonel turned to Mr. Davidson and 
wanted to know whether these arrangements ha<l 
been made, and whether the boys would be disap- 
pointed if he did not do what had been expected. 
Mr. Davidson said: 

"We do not want to do anything that will in- 
convenience you, but I think they will be disap- 
pointed." 

Whereupon the Colonel saluted and said: 

"I am going." 

The Doctor v/ent back to get the Colonel's 
overcoat, and as soon as he put on his overcoat the 
Colonel, accompanied by Mr. Davidson, Capt. 



136 The Attempted Assassination of 

Girard upon one side and Col. Lyon on the other, 
went through the line of the marching club and 
got into the automobile. Col. Lyon requested of 
me that the party be made a small one and not 
have a great many automobiles. They went di- 
rectly to the Gilpatrick. At about twenty minutes 
to eight I went to the hotel with H. E. Miles, 
Frank M. Hoyt, Congressman H. A. Cooper, of 
Racine, Prof. Merriman, of Chicago, and others. 
When I reached the lobby of the hotel I talked 
with Capt. Girard and told him that I had another 
machine there and that I found there was only one 
machine in front of the hotel; that Mr. Moss, Mr. 
Taylor and I thought that machine should be used, 
and that I, with the others who had accompanied 
me, would walk from the hotel to the Auditorium, 
my understanding being that Col. Lyon did 
not want a large crowd to accompany Col. Roose- 
velt to the Auditorium. Capt. Girard told me that 
he understood that the party would be down and 
ready to start promptly, to reach the Auditorium 
at a few minutes after eight. Mr. Moss and Mr. 
Taylor were in the auto in which the Colonel was 
to drive from the hotel to the Auditorium. The 
machine that I had came through the crowd and 
got right close to Mr. Moss' and Mr. Taylor's 
auto. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 137 

I went immediately to the Auditorium and 
went in at the State Street entrance and went on 
the platform. Mr. Miles, state treasurer of the 
party, had called together Mr. Heyl, Mr. David- 
son and some of the sergeants-at-arms and was mak- 
ing arrangements to take up a collection from the 
audience. Mr. Miles had started to go on the 
platform to announce this collection and the 
sergeants-at-arms proceeded to their various places 
to get instructions, and I went to the stage door. 

Col. Roosevelt came and I knew nothing what- 
ever of what had occurred; while I noticed the 
party accompanying him seemed excited. The 
Colonel showed no excitement at all, and I said to 
him: 

"Wait a few minutes back of the stage while 
Mr. Miles takes up the collection. Mr. Donald 
Ferguson desires to have it." 

The Colonel said: 

"Mr. Bloodgood, I have been shot and there is 
a bullet somewhere in my body; the important 
thing is that nothing should be said or done to cause 
a panic in the audience. I intend to deliver my 
address, or at least a part of it." 

Col. Roosevelt then went back of the stage and 
requested us to go to the front and prevent any one 
saying anything. He said: 

"It will only be a minute before I will be out." 



138 The Attempted Assassination of 

I also heard the Colonel tell Mr. Cochems to 
say or do nothing that would frighten the people. 

The appearance of the Colonel on the platform 
and the circumstances connected with it have been 
fully described. Col. Lyon, just before the address 
of Col. Roosevelt was made, suggested to me that 
it was very important that the crowd should not 
press around Col. Roosevelt and to make arrange- 
ments to prevent that. I went back and found 
three men who said they were detectives, and I 
asked them to come on the stage and to make ar- 
rangements so as to prevent the crowd from press- 
ing around Col. Roosevelt. Mr. Cochems, in the 
mean time, had gone in front of Col. Roosevelt so 
as to catch him if he should fall, and had made all 
arrangements to prevent the crowd from rushing 
on the platform after the address was finished. 

Col. Roosevelt, after the address, walked 
through the aisle, which was kept open from the 
stage door, to the automobile; as he got into the 
automobile he shook my hand and said that he 
wanted it made emphatic that he blamed no one; 
that the city authorities were not to blame, nor was 
any blame to be attached to any one that had charge 
of this meeting; that it was an accident and could 
not have been prevented; that it might have hap- 
pened anywhere; and repeated the importance of 
making that clear, and that that was his feeling. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 139 

That was just before he left in the auto for the 
Emergency hospital. 



* * 



The following statement was made by Capt. 
A. O. Girard, who was in the automobile when 
Col. Roosevelt was shot. The statement was made 
in the office of the district attorney on Oct. 16, 
1912. 

I was asked by the secretary of the Progressive 
State Central committee to go to Racine and meet 
the Colonel, having been with him in his depart- 
ment and been his body guard before, and take 
some papers down. The Colonel requested that 1 
stay with him for the evening and after we got at 
the hotel I stood in front of the door so he VN^ouldn't 
be disturbed, and also at the dining room door. 

While sitting in the dining room door there was 
a slight, dark man who said he came there especi- 
ally from New York to see the Colonel, and was 
very persistent and wanted to open the dining room 
door and see him at the table. I finally forced him 
away. He was sallow complexioned, 28 or 30 
years of age, I imagine, had a dark overcoat on, 
not so extra well dressed, smooth face. I noticed 
his eyes particularly— they were rather shifty— 
and he was very, very persistent in getting to the 
dining room. He was a man of about five feet ten ; 




Dr. R. G. Sayle, Milwaukee. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 141 

this happened at 7 o'clock at the Gilpatrick dining 
room. 

I saw him after that after I had told him to go 
away; he got something to smoke at the cigar stand 
and then went out. I did not see him after that, 
things happened so rapidly. 

The Colonel went upstairs and got his hat and 
coat on and came down. I cleared the way going 
out with Sergeant Murray, and I told the fellows 
on the other side of the automobile to get back; 
they were jammed up against the automobile; the 
Colonel started to get into the automobile. 

Just as I put my foot on the step of the car, I 
saw this man raise his gun, stick it between two fel- 
lows' heads at the full extent of his arm, and Mr. 
Taylor can tell you the rest. 

I started to get into the machine from the side- 
walk, and Mr. Moss sat up on the seat to get out of 
my way, and Mr. Taylor laid back, as I remember 
it, to give him room ; after he was laid back, I had 
my right foot on top of the car door. That is as 
far as I got into the machine. I saw this man ex- 
tend his hand with this gun between two other 
men's heads. He reached as far as he could with 
it. The end of that gun was probably six feet 
raised to the level of his eye; he took a good aim. 
Everybody was watching the Colonel. 



142 The Attempted Assassination of 

The moment I saw that arm go up I remember 
distinctly the flourishing of the gun almost in my 
face, and at the same time somebody else jumped 
from the other end of the machine. We were all 
on the ground together and then Sergeant Murray 
came up and Murray and I took the man over to 
the Colonel's seat, Murray having him by the arm 
and I by the throat. Mr. Martin had him by the 
other arm. 

The Colonel said, "Bring him to me, bring him 
here," and we bent his head back so the Colonel 
could see him. Then they began to shout, "Lynch 
him, kill him." 

The Colonel said, "Do not hurt him." 

Before that, on the ground, the fellow tried to 
kick me and made it more difficult for us to get the 
man, and as a result I got most of the kicks. 

After we took him to the Colonel, Sergeant 
Murray and I had a difficult thing to get that man 
away. I shouted to Murray: "Into the kitchen." 

We fought our way through the dining room 
into the kitchen with two or three hundred fellows. 
Murray left the man in my care until he called the 
patrol wagon. Then I started for the Auditorium. 
After we went to the kitchen I searched the man 
again for possible other weapons. I did not find 
anything. He said: "My gun is gone; your peo- 
ple took it away from me." 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 143 

I forced him down into a chair and held him 
down until the police got back. 

(Mr. Zabel) — You accompanied the Colonel 
from the train to the hotel? 

(Answer) — Yes. 

(Mr. Zabel)— Did you notice the police pro- 
tection? 

(Answer) — They did not have enough men to 
keep the crowd away from the side of the Colonel. 
I think it was one of the ex-President's party who 
walked along side of the ex-President. When I 
got to the hotel I was of course pretty busy with the 
Colonel, and Sergeant Murray v/as there. Some- 
one asked me to see if he could not get an officer 
to go with the carriage to the Auditorium and walk 
on the side the ex-President was. I called the Ser- 
geant and he said he would find a man for me there. 
As to how many men were there, I do not remem- 
ber. I know Sergeant Murray was there and I 
saw one other man. 

(Mr. Zabel) — Any policeman assisting you and 
the sergeant in making the arrest of this fellow? 

(Answer) — -There was another officer there 
when we started to the hotel trying to keep the 

crowd back. 

* * * 

Francis E. Davidson, chairman of the Mil- 
waukee County Progressive committee, made the 



144 The Attempted Assassination of 

following statements to District Attorney Zabel on 
Oct. 16: 

Mr. Bloodgood called me over to his office and 
said that I was to take charge of the Roosevelt 
meeting in the Auditorium. Among other duties, 
I was to inform the police department and ask for 
protection for Col. Roosevelt while he was in the 
city. I went to the office of the chief of police with 
Paul Heyl, sergeant-at-arms, two days before the 
meeting. The chief of police was not in, but I was 
sent to the inspector. We told him that we wanted 
police protection at the depot, on the streets and 
at the Hotel Gilpatrick for Col. Roosevelt, which 
was promised. In going away I did not think that 
he attached enough importance to what I told him, 
and I went back and asked him on account of con- 
ditions in the country I wanted extra police protec- 
tion for the Colonel, and was informed that he had 
taken care of Col. Roosevelt before. 

(Mr. Zabel) — When this car arrived in Mil- 
waukee, what police protection was visible to you? 

(Answer) — I think there were two or three po- 
licemen down at the station in uniform. 

(Mr. Zabel) — Were there any plain clothes 
men that you recognized? 

(Answer) — Not that I recognized. 

(Mr. Zabel) — Are you familiar with them? 

(Answer) — No. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 145 

(Mr. Zabel) — Where were they stationed? 

(Answer) — One in front of the depot and one 
at the gate. 

(Mr. Zabel) — Was the ex-President obliged to 
pass through the depot on his way out? 

(Answer) — No, through the small gate. 

I told Mr. Bloodgood that we had made ar- 
rangements which would prevent any one calling 
on Col. Roosevelt at the hotel, having a private 
room and also police protection. 

(Mr. Zabel) — What protection did you notice 
when you came there? 

(Answer) — I noticed a policeman at the door. 
There may have been plain clothes men. 
* * * 

The following statement was made to District 
Attorney Zabel on Oct. 16, by Thomas Taylor, 
who was in the automobile with Col. Roosevelt: 

We had the honor of escorting the ex-President 
in our machine from the depot to the Gilpatrick. 
We left him there and we kept the machine in 
front of the main part of the hotel door all the time. 
While Mr. Moss was away I remained with the 
machine, and when he came back I went into the 
hotel. 

As I came in, I asked where the Colonel was. 
They said he was in the dining room, and I talked 
to two or three of the committeemen there. After 



146 The Attempted Assassination of 

I got to one side there was a man about twenty- 
eight or thirty years of age, smooth face, fairly well 
dressed, who asked me if I could get him a ticket 
to the Auditorium. 

I said, "Where are you from?" He said, "I am 
from New York." Well, I told him the tickets 
were all given out, and there was no way for him 
to get in unless he wanted to go immediately over 
to the hall and take chances with the rest. 

The thing that struck me after that was that he 
did not go immediately over to the hall, but stood 
about talking. His appearance is just exactly as 
Capt. Girard described. He was a man that would 
weigh probably 145 pounds, five feet nine, prob- 
ably nine and a half, smooth face, no emblems that 
I could see, but was very anxious about getting 
into that hall. 

Soon after that another man came to me with 
the same request and wanted to know if I knew of 
any way he could get in. I told him the same story. 

I said, ''Where are you from, are you a stran- 
ger here?" 

And he said: "I am from Ohio," but I do not 
recall what place. 

I returned to the machine and had it all ready 
when the ex- President was seen coming down the 
stairs to the door. I turned on the power, opened 
the door and the Colonel came right along; Capt. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 147 

Girard was right near him. Martin jumped into 
the machine first, and, turning his back, started to 
assist the ex-President. Capt. Girard stepped up, 
as he has described, and Henry F. Cochems had got 
in. 

Just then, right to my side, I heard the very low 
report. I hunt a great deal and shoot, and the 
flash of a gun doesn't scare me but sets me instantly 
on my nerve. 

Quick as a flash, I saw this man with his arm 
about so (indicating). 

I was knocked down by Capt. Girard, and 
when I sprang to my knees Capt. Girard and Mar- 
tin were on top of Schrank. 

A dark man took Schrank's arm; he looked like 
a laborer. He grabbed him and seemed to be 
struggling with him. The laborer got hold of 
Schrank first; I think the captain was up as soon 
as any man. 

I turned to the Colonel and he was just sitting 
in his seat. Henry F. Cochems put his arms around 
him. It was only for a second or two, and the 
Colonel rose up and said: 

''Do not kill him; bring him here; bring him 
here." 

He must have said that five or six times imme- 
diately after, and they brought the man back and 
bent his head back on the back of the machine. 



148 The Attempted Assassination of 

The ex-President looked into his eyes for a second 
or two and the ex-President shook his head, and 
then turned away. I turned to the ex-President 
and I said: 

"Colonel, he hit you." 

He said: 

"He never touched me; he never touched me." 

I said: 

"You have a hole in your coat," and the Colonel 
put his hand to his side and said: 

"He picked me; he picked me." 

This did not scare him. Then he addressed the 
crowd and said: 

"We are going to the hall ; we are going to the 
hall; start the machine; go ahead; go on." 

After we got up and turned on ¥/ells street, we 
turned up about a block and a half and the doctor 
and some friend opened the front of Roosevelt's 
coat, and he turned then and saw the blood. Then 
he turned pale. That is the first time I saw him 
turn pale was when he saw that blood. Before we 
got to the Auditorium he had recovered as far as 
the paleness was concerned. He was immediately 
taken into a side room there. 

(Mr. Zabel) — Did you have charge of taking 
the tickets at the Auditorium? 

(Mr. Taylor) — I was one of the committee the 
same as the rest of the people that were around 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 149 

there with badges on ; I had given out some tickets. 

What strikes me as peculiar about this affair is 
that this man Schrank, claiming not to be familiar 
with the use of firearms, should be able to select 
the kind of revolver that was used, a 38-caliber 
Colt with a 44 frame, one of the most deadly weap- 
ons made. 

I may explain that the frame being large en- 
ables the shooter to have a more deadly aim. The 
Colonel also remarked the same thing in regard 
to this weapon, 38-caliber, a 44 frame. 

Col. Cecil Lyon held the gun up to us to look 
at, and it was an ugly looking weapon. 

Reference: It will be noted was made by 
members of the Roosevelt party to a laboring man 
who struck Schrank's arm as he fired, and who was 
one of the men who struggled with Schrank im- 
mediately after the shot was fired. That man was 
Frank Buskowsky, 1140 Seventh avenue, Milwau- 
kee. In an interview Buskowsky said: 

"I was so excited when I realized that the man 
next to me had shot at Roosevelt that I felt like 
killing him, and I cried out at the top of my voice 
as I held him, 'Kill him, kill the d-n scoundrel.' 

"The police must have thought that I meant 
Roosevelt, for when one of them came up to me he 




John T. Janssen, Chief of Police. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 151 

yelled, 'What in h--l is the matter with you?' and 
hustled me away. 

"As I cannot speak good English, I could not 
explain that I had meant Schrank and not Roose- 
velt. I was so excited when the police took me 
away that way that I went immediately home. 

"If I could have explained myself that patrol- 
man w^ould have heard something from me for the 
way he clubbed me on my head. My hat was 
smashed in. 

"I came home, disgusted with the treatment I 
had received by the police. The next morning I 
read all about Martin capturing that man and it 
made me mad, for I was the first one to grab him 
and prevent him from shooting any more." 

Buskowsky is a Bohemian and has been in 
America seven years, during which period he has 
been an enthusiastic supporter of the Bull Moose 
leader. 

Affidavits corroborating what is set forth in 
statements presented were made by Donald Fergu- 
son, of Goldfield, Nev.; Arthur W. Newhall, 812 
State street, Milwaukee; Jacques R. Thill, 574 
Jackson street, Milwaukee, and Sergeant Albert J. 
Murray, Milwaukee police department, and Abra- 
ham Cohen, 519 North avenue, Milwaukee. 



CHAPTER XIV. 
A SECOND EXAMINATION. 

Report of questions propounded by District 
Attorney Winifred C. Zabel, of Milwaukee county, 
and Wheeler P. Bloodgood, to, and answers given 
by, John Flammang Schrank, at the county jail, of 
the county of Milwaukee, Wis., in the presence 
of Sherifif Arnold, Donald Ferguson, Francis E. 
Davidson and others, commencing at 12:50 P. M. 
on the 16th day of October, 1912. Reported by 
Alfred O. Wilmot, court reporter, District court, 
Milwaukee county. 
Mr. Zabel: 

While you were living in New York what news- 
papers did you read? 

A. I read the New York Herald and I read 
the New York World, and the New York Staats- 
Zeitung, a German paper. 

Q. That is a German publication? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Is that a morning paper? 

A. Yes, sir; also evening edition. 

Q. Did you read any of the Hearst publica- 
tions? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. The New York American? 



Ex-President TJieodore Roosevelt 153 

A. No, sir. 

Q. New York Journal ? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. What you read in the New York World 
and what is the other news — 

A. Herald. 

Q. And New York Herald did anything you 
read in those papers impress you in any way? 

A. Well, it did in a way impress me, that 
means, I thought whatever I read in the paper was 
pretty much right, what the people were talking 
about this building of the new party and deserting 
the old party. You can read that in the newspapers 
and that is what I read and it must be right. 

Mr. Bloodgood: 

Q. Mr. Schrank, you remember I examined 
you at some length on Monday evening and you 
spoke of the New York H^erald and New York 
World and the headlines that appeared in those 
papers, and that you have been reading them con- 
stantly, is that corect? 

A. That is correct, yes, sir. 

Mr. Zabel: 

Q. Did you read those papers for the political 
items that were contained in them? 

A. Well, in fact, not exactly for htat. I read 
the papers the same as anybody else, and naturally 



154 The Attempted Assassination of 

things like those I took interest in every, and the 
items interested me in those articles. 

Q. What headlines are still fresh in your recol- 
lection which you read? concerning political — 

A. Oh, I could not just recall anything. Head- 
lines doesn't amount to much. It is now and then 
perhaps, but it doesn't amount to much. It is just 
the item itself. 

Q. Was there anything you read in those pa- 
pers that gave you any distinct impression to kill 
Roosevelt? 

A. No, sir; not at all. I cannot blame the pa- 
pers whatsoever. I have done what I done on my 
own convictions. 

Q. Well, were you not impressed by what you 
read in the New York papers as to the menace 
which Mr. Roosevelt would be to our nation? 

A. No, sir; not by the papers, hardly. I 
thought my own opinion about that. 

Q. Do you remember reading anything in 
those papers in which Mr. Roosevelt was described 
either as a tyrant or as a traitor? 

A. Oh, no. 

Q. Or his ingratitude or words to that eflfect? 

A. No; there might have been a few criticisms 
that says I am It Or Me and I and that is about 
all, but that doesn't impress much on anybody. 

Q. When you say that — You started to say be- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 155 

fore that you were much opposed to Mr. Roosevelt 
deserting the old party and building up a new 
party — What old party did you have in mind? 

A. The Republican party. 

Q. Were you interested in the Republican 

party? 

A. No, sir; I was not interested. 

Q. Ever vote the Republican ticket? 

A. Yes, sir; I have several times. 

Q. On National elections? 

A. National elections. 

Q. Ever vote for Mr. Roosevelt? 

A. No. 

Q. Municipal elections were you — 

A. A democrat. 

Q. Democrat for what particular reason? 

A. Well, as long as we were in the liquor busi- 
ness there in New York it was almost natural that 
we should vote the Tammany rule because every 
liquor dealer needs protection. 

Q. On account of what? 

A. Account Sunday law, because we was sell- 
ing Sundays beer that we could not sell unless you 
belonged to that organization. You will have the 
police after you all the time. I suppose you know 
that as well — 

Q. Did yow ever contribute? 



156 The Attempted Assassination of 

A. Well, we had to contribute at times— yes, 
sir. There would be a different way to contribute. 

Q. Did you ever give money to the organiza- 
tion? 

A. No, not to the organization. 

Q. Or to the police? 

A. There is a different way of doing that. If 
you didn't do it willingly of course there would be 
a way. They will be around one of those nice Sun- 
days and arrest you and naturally there will be two 
there and they will impress a charge against you 
in a manner that will get you out in case you paid 
them. I have been doing that several times, gave 
each one five dollar bill or ten dollar bill and they 
won't press the charge. 

Q. This money was to be used for what pur- 
pose? 

A. That I could not tell. 

Q. The men that came around on that mission 
were they police officers or politicians? 

A. Well, regular officers, specials, what takes 
these Sunday — 

Sheriff Arnold: 

Mr. Zabel, did anybody here send for a man 
named Moss? 

Mr. Bloodgood: 

Yes. Send him in. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 157 

Q. Did you ever contribute anything to the 
Republican campaign fund? 

A. No, sir; I had no reason. 

Q. Was ever any contribution solicited of you 
by Tammany Hall or by the Police? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Now isn't it a fact that a good deal of your 
feeling against Roosevelt was created by what you 
read in the papers? 

A. It was not created, no, sir. 

Q. Well, was it to a large measure influential? 

A. I could not just deny that it had some in- 
fluence but not to be decisive. 

Q. Not decisive. 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Didn't it make you feel angry and un- 
friendly? 

A. Not any worse than what I was. 

Q. Didn't make you feel any worse or more 
unfriendly? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Toward Roosevelt? 

Mr. Bloodgood: 

Q. How long have you been reading the New 
York Herald? 

A. Oh, I believe since I am able to read. 

Q. And the World? 

A. Also. 



158 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. Now you said the other evening that papers 
you principally read were those two — was that cor- 
rect? 

A. Correct. 

Q. Now did you read them during August of 
this year. You were in New York then? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And state what impressed you in particular 
— what you saw in the New York Herald in Au- 
gust — at about that time of the formation of the 
new progressive party in Chicago? 

A. Well, in fact I cannot remember much. I 
could not be very much impressed by the New 
York Herald because the Herald is a very con- 
servative paper. The Herald is not what they call 
the Yellow press and the only excuse the Herald, 
had is simply to say. Well, the Third Termer, that 
is all. 

Q. Now what in the New York World im- 
pressed you during that time? 

A. From that time? 

Q. During that time. 

A. Well, as I have said before, there was no 
special impression nohow. It was only the same as 
anybody else could read, which was to be found in 
the editorials or the man was building up a new 
party and was deserting and he cries that he stole 
the nomination away from him, such as that; as 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 159 

anybody else would read. That didn't make any 
serious impression on me. 

Q. Now, when did you write out these state- 
ments that was in your pocket? 

A. On the 14th of September. 

Q. Wrote it all out on that day? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Every bit of it? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. From the beginning to the end? Answer 
my question. 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Yes, or no? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And the very statements the police found 
in your pocket was written by you and all of it on 
the 14th day of September, 1912? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now in your pocket was found a statement 
in regard to the various places that Col. Roosevelt 
was to speak. Where did you get that from? 

A. Oh, every day in the papers. Just as I fol- 
lowed the towns. I generally bought a paper there 
the same day or the next morning and that would 
just about give me the information where I could 
meet him next. 

Q. That was in your own handwriting, that 
statement? 







Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. 

From "Vanity Fair" 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 161 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. The other night when you were examined 
with reference to that you said you hadn't written 
it out? 

A. Which. Written out? 

Q. That statement they found in your pocket. 

A. That I hadn't wrote it out? Well, who 
should have written it out? 

Q. You said you hadn't written it out in your 
own handwriting or on the typewriter? 

A. On the typewriter. 

Q. Is that in your own hand? 

A. Well, in the first place I cannot handle a 
typewriter and in the second place who else should 
furnish that or who else should write it? 

Q. That was — 

A. In fact I suppose if you compare the two of 
them there must be some likeness. I don't profess 
that I write the same all the time or every time, 
but I think that was written on one day. 

Mr. Zabel: You— 

A. I think it is one and the same writing. 

Q. How did you happen to compose those ar- 
ticles? 

A. Because it was the 14th of September, the 
day McKinley died and the day I had that vision 
I completed my will-power that I was going to do 
that what I did. 



162 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. You made up your mind then? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. There wasn't anything you read in any pa- 
pers that caused you to do that? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Where was it you wrote those articles? 

A. In New York. 

Q. In your room? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Ever read them to anyone? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Ever mention the fact of having written 
them to anyone? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Ever show them to anybody? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Anybody help you compose those articles? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Ever talk to anybody before that that you 
intended to do that? 

A. No, sir; no, sir. 

Q. Now, how was it you come here from Chi- 
cago? 

A. Chicago. To here? 

Q. Yes. Who was it came with you here from 
Chicago? 

A. Nobody came here with me. 

Q. Wasn't you traveling with somebody? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 163 

A. Indeed not. 

Q. Didn't somebody keep you posted as to 
where he was going? 

A. No, not at all. My God I am 36 years old 
and I am not crazy, the same as the papers has 
stated. I ought to be able to follow — 

Q. Did you attempt to get tickets to get in the 
Auditorium? 

A. No, sir; I didn't. I waited outside in front 
of the Auditorium. Yes, is that the Auditorium in 
Chicago — No, that is the Coliseum. 

Q. Is that — I mean in Milwaukee? 

A. No, I didn't intend to go there at all. 

Q. Did you go inside of the Hotel Gilpatrick? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Ever talk to any of these gentlemen (re- 
ferring to those present) ? 

A. No, sir; to none of them, unless they have 
questioned me here Monday, I don't know. I have 
never seen them before. 

Mr. Bloodgood: 

Q. Were you at the depot at about quarter of 
six on Monday night? 

A. On what depot? 

Q. In Milwaukee, when Mr. Roosevelt came 
to Milwaukee. 

A. No, sir; I was not. 

Q. Where were you at quarter to six? 



164 The Attempted Assassination of 

A. Quarter to six. I was standing in front of 
the Gilpatrick. 

Q. Did you go down to Chicago and North- 
western depot? 

A. Chicago-Lake Shore depot — around four 
o'clock, but not later. 

Q. And how long did you stay there? 

A. I didn't go to the depot — as far as that goes. 
I went to the last street and I walked around this 
way up to the hill and came back to the town. I 
didn't go into the depot. 

Q. What time was that? 

A. Four o'clock, I believe it was. 

Q. On Monday afternoon? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now you left New York on what date? 

A. On the 21st. 21st of September. 

Q. Upon what railroad? 

A. I took the ship. 

Q. What transportation company? 

A. I really don't know which it was. 

Q. Well, what dock did you leave from? 

A. I could not tell you. Mister, what dock. I 
know the steamship's name was Commache (Com- 
manse, so pronounced). 

Q. Where bound for? 

A. For Charleston. No, it was bound in fact 
for Florida, but it stopped at Charleston. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 165 

Q. You got off at Charleston? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What day did you reach Charleston? 

A. I reached that on Monday — Monday, I be- 
lieve at five o'clock. 

Q. In the afternoon? 

A. In the afternoon; yes, sir. 

Q. Did you expect Col. Roosevelt at Charles- 
ton? 

A. No, I didn't. 

Q. What was your purpose in going to 
Charleston? 

A. Well, my original intention v^as to go to 
New Orleans, and reading the papers I found that 
he was changing his way of traveling and so this 
that before the steamship comes to New Orleans 
why I wouldn't be following him there any more — - 
he would be gone, so I thought I would take 
Charleston and then get to Atlanta, perhaps I can 
meet him at Atlanta. 

Q. Where did you stay there? 

A. At a boarding house by the name of Mosley 
House. 

Q. Do you know the street? 

A. I believe it is Merlin street, near Main. 
Q. How long did you stay there? 
A. I stayed there Monday and I stayed there 
Tuesday, I think I did. I guess I left the next day. 



166 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. Well, where did you go to from Charles- 
ton? 

A. Charleston I went to Augusta. 

Q. Where did you stay at Augusta? 

A. At Augusta I stayed in the Planters Hotel. 
I have got it in that slip, if I make a mistake it ain't 
my fault, but I got it all down in every city where 
I stopped, so if I make a mistake — 

Q. You put that down on a slip from time to 
time? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. As you went along? 

A. Yes, sir. I might make a mistake now, and 
you think I am making you a false statement. 

Q. Did you meet anyone at Charleston whom 
you knew? 

A. No, no; I was a perfect stranger there. 

Q. Did you meet anyone at Savannah, Geor- 
gia? 

A. Augusta. 

Q. Augusta? 

A. No, I was a stranger there. At every place. 
I didn't know anybody to go to. 

Q. Did you go to the hotel where Col. Roose- 
velt was staying at those places? 

A. No, I didn't. I could not tell where he was 
going to stop. I could not tell that every time. 
Now the same as his coming from New Orleans I 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 167 

took a trip down to Birmingham I thought sure he 
was going to stop at Birmingham. Instead of that 
he changed his way and he went way to Macon, 
Georgia. That is the way he deceived me half a 
dozen times after it was advertised that I could 
meet him there and there. 

Q. What day did you get to Chicago? 

A. Chicago. I arrived if I ain't mistaken, now 
I might not tell the truth but I guess it, I think it 
was Friday. 

Q. Friday morning? 

A. Friday dinner time, if I ain't mistaken. 

Q. Now what did you go over to the La Salle 
Hotel where Col. Roosevelt — 

A. I was over to the La Salle, but not in the 
hotel. 

Q. You didn't go inside of the hotel? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Where did you stand? 

A. On the street, the same as here, on the street. 

Q. In front of the entrance? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Waiting to hear whether he was coming 
out? 

A. No, I didn't wait for him to come out be- 
cause he got there in the morning — I think he did, 
in the morning, yes, at ten o'clock he got there. I 
seen him go in and I never seen him go out. 



168 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. You saw him go out or go in at ten o'clock 
Saturday morning? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Where were you standing? 

A. On the street with the rest of the crowd. 

Q. Did you try to get your revolver there? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. What prevented you from drawing? 

A. Well, I thought it is his reception that 
might have a bad feeling on the city of Chicago, 
giving him a reception like that; I thought I might 
have plenty of chance to get at him later on if it 
wouldn't be just at the reception. 

Q. Let me understand you what prevented you 
from drawing. 

A. I says because it was the reception — There 
was so many people receiving him and I suppose 
the city of Chicago would like to give him a decent 
respectable reception. It would look awful bad if 
at the reception he would have got shot down, I 
says to myself that wouldn't go, I might get a bet- 
ter chance. 

Q. You knew there was a death penalty in Il- 
linois? 

A. No, sir; I never knew anything like that. 

Q. How near were you to him when he passed 
you that morning at the La Salle? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 169 

A. How near? It was on the other side of the 
street. 

Q. Is that the nearest you got to him? 

A. Yes. 

Mr. Zabel: Did you carry your revolver at 
that time in your pocket? 

A. No. 

Q. You had one that you — 

A. In here (indicating hip pocket). 

Q. Where did you go — to the Coliseum — Why 
did you go to the Coliseum if you didn't intend to 
shoot him in Chicago? 

A. Indeed I did intend to. I am just telling 
you I didn't intend to do it that morning when he 
was being received there. I thought I would get a 
better chance. 

Q. So it was a matter of chance or was it a mat- 
ter of your wanting to kill him in front of the 
hotel? 

A. When he was being received? 

Q. Do you mean by that that you didn't want 
to kill him in front of the La Salle but that you 
were perfectly willing to kill him when he was 
away? 

A. I was willing to kill him, that is all, but I 
was I just wasn't willing to kill him at the recep- 
tion. I told you that three times I didn't want the 




W. F. Becker 



■W7;ii;or„ c \xf.-. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 171 

city of Chicago to feel sore that a stranger comes 
along at the beginning — 

Q. Just a matter of the time? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now that he had — That was Saturday 
morning? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now when you went — Did you go to the 
Coliseum? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Where did you stand — How near were you 
to him? 

A. Well, as near as I could get in the crowd. 
As near as the crowd let me get there, mostly in 
the middle of the street. 

Q. Well, how near were you to the automo- 
bile? 

A. I could not see the automobile coming. 
They came in a different way. I was in the main 
entrance and they came on the side way. 

Q. You were standing at the main entrance? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Where did you have the gun — here? 

A. Here. In here. 

Q. In your vest pocket? 

A. Yes, sir. Here is the hole (indicating ex- 
hibiting a hole in the lower left hand vest pocket). 

Q. Right through here? 



172 The Attempted Assassination of 

A. And down in the trousers. 

Q. And you were waiting at the main en- 
trance? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What time did you get to that main en- 
trance? 

A. I could not tell you now, sir. 

Q. Well, approximately. 

A. Well, perhaps half an hour before he came. 

Q. You were right by the portal or door? 

A. No, sir; I was in the middle of the street. 

Q. You intended to shoot him right from the 
street? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Now then, when you found he came into 
the other entrance what did you do then? 

A. I went up. I could not do nothing. I had 
to wait until he comes out. 

Q. Did you wait until he came out? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Where did you wait? 

A. At the main entrance again. 

Q. And you were there then when the speech 
was over? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Did you get near him then? 

A. No, I didn't. He didn't come out the main 
entrance. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 173 

Q. You were all ready to shoot him then at 
the main entrance? 

A. Well, I was there, I expected him to come 

there. 

Q. Now, after you found he didn't come out 
through the main entrance, where did you go? 

A. Went home. 

Q. Went to the hotel. How long did you stay 
there at the main entrance? 

A. Until he came out. 

Q. Well, how did you know which way be 
would come out? 

A. I could not know— that is why I was— I 
was at the main entrance, I expected him to come 

out there. 

Q. Where were you standing then, in the 

street? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. By the automobile? 

A. No. I was standing at the front entrance. 
I didn't know his automobile. Automobile don't 
wait all the time, anyhow, I didn't see it or I for- 
got. 

Q. Now then, where did you learn that he was 
coming to Milwaukee? From the papers? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You came up to Milwaukee at what hour? 

A. Twelve o'clock, noon time. 



174 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. Now, on Monday night, did you go and in- 
quire of the — -Did you talk to Mr. Moss, who is in 
charge of one of those automobiles? 

A. Never spoke to that gentleman. Never 
spoke to anybody. 

Q. Did you go up and ask anyone whether Mr. 
Roosevelt was going to get in this car? 

A. No, sir; nothing like that. 

Q. Now there was a big car right back of this 
car in which the Colonel was when you shot him — 
there were two automobiles, smaller cars in which 
the Colonel got and a larger car right back of him. 

A. Might be. 

Q. Well, did you speak to the chauffeur in the 
car back of the Colonel's and ask him whether he 
was going to sit in that car? 

A. I didn't do anything of the kind. Didn't 
ask anybody. I didn't speak to anybody. It was 
always my principle not to speak to anybody unless 
a man bids me the time then I answer him, but why 
should I speak in that way? 

Q. Now, what other place did you see the 
Colonel besides in Chicago, in front of the La Salle 
other than on Monday night? 

A. I saw him in Chattanooga. 

Q. Chattanooga, Tenn. Was that the time the 
automobile was going so fast? 

A. Yes, sir; that was the time. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 175 

Q. How near were you to him then? 
A. I was near enough whene he came out but 
I could not stay within reach. 

Q. You were standing in front of the entrance? 
A. In front of the entrance. 

Q. With your revolver ready to shoot him 
then? 

A. Yes, sir; I was always ready to shoot him. 

Q. Now, did you see him as he went in or 
came out that day at Chattanooga? 

A. When he came out the entrance. 

Q. After he finished his speech? 

A. No, I didn't go there to see him there. 

Q. But you say you saw him at — 

A. I saw him going out the Chattanooga de- . 
pot, out of the railroad station, going to his hotel. 

Q. At the railroad station? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You went there just as you went to the rail- 
road station in Milwaukee? 

A. No, I didn't go to Milwaukee. 

Q. Well, you said you went down to the lake 
shore station at four o'clock? 

A. Yes, at four o'clock, but I didn't go down 
there to see him coming in. 

Q. Now at Chattanooga did you go down to 
the railroad station? 



176 The Attempted Assassination of 

A. No, I didn't have to go down. I just 
stopped at the other side in the hotel. 

Q. How near were you at Chattanooga? 

A. I was near enough to shoot him. 

Q. Why didn't you shoot him at Chattanooga? 

A. Well, I didn't shoot him at Chattanooga 
because it was a new thing to me. Ididn't just 
exactly have courage enough to do it and he started 
off so fast in his automobile and I thought maybe 
there is a better chance. 

Q. How near were you to his automobile in 
Chattanooga? 

A. Why, from there to there, about ten feet. 

Q. Were you as near as you were the other 
night? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Were you standing in the street? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Did you start to draw your revolver then? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Your courage left you then? 

A. For a moment it did. 

Q. Were there any policemen standing around 
you at Chattanooga? 

A. Yes, there was some, keeping the crowd 
back. 

Q. And were you on the sidewalk or in the 
street? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 177 

A. In the street, off of the entrance. 

Q. Did you get right next to his automobile? 

A. No, sir; I could not get next— 

Q. You were about ten feet away from him? 

A. Yes, about half a dozen other people in 
front of me. 

Q. And your courage had left you at that 

time? 

A. For a moment it did. 

Q. When his automobile started off did you 
start to go after him? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you see him again in Chattanooga? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. After that time. Now, when did you see 
him next after Chattanooga? 

A. That was the last time I saw him until m 

Chicago. 

Q Until in Chicago. Did you see him any 
time prior to the time you saw him at Chattanooga? 

A. No, sir. 

Q So the only three times you were within 
reach of him was in front of the La Salle Hotel in 
Chicago, Saturday morning? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. And at the Chattanooga depot? 

A. At the depot. 



178 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. And then in Milwaukee Monday night? 
Is that correct? 

A. That is correct. 

Q. And since the 21st of September up to the 
14th of October the only times that you were within 
reach of even saw the Col. Roosevelt were the three 
times you have mentioned? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Was he in any of the cities you were in at 
the time you were there excepting Chicago, Chat- 
tanooga and Milwaukee? 

A. Not at the time I was there. He was there 
either before or after me. 

Q. So those were the only three — 

A. That I had a possible chance to shoot him, 
yes. 

Q. Now state again, when he was at the La 
Salle Hotel, could you have shot him then? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. You were near enough to have shot him at 
the La Salle? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What prevented you from shooting him, 
was it that your courage gave way? 

A. No, sir; not my courage didn't give way. 
As I said I didn't want to do it because it is his 
coming-in reception — man is getting there — I 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 179 

didn't want to do it for that sake. 1 thought I'd 
get a better chance. 

Q. Was it because of the fact you desired a 
better chance or you didn't want to do it on that 
particular occasion? 

A. On that particular occasion. I didn't want 
to do it. Yes, sir. 

Q. And at Chattanooga it was a matter of per- 
sonal courage with you— your nerve failed you? 
A. Just for a moment it failed me, yes, sir. 
Q. Have you been accustomed to using fire- 
arms? 

A. No. 

Q. Had you ever shot a revolver? 
A. I have shot a revolver several times during 
the 4th of July, that is about all, but I never han- 
dled it much. I don't know how to shoot. I didn't 
know whether I shot the man or not. 

Q. How was it you got a 44 frame for a 38- 
caliber gun? 

A. 44 frame? 
Q. For a 38-caliber gun? 
A. Well, my dear man, you know more about 
a gun than I do. I don't know anything about that. 
I bought that in that place that is a gun shop and 
they got all new ware and he told me it was a 
38-caliber and I paid $14. Whatever the housing 
of it was I don't know. 




Hotel Gllpatrick. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 181 

Q. You speak of housing — you are familiar 
with revolvers? 

A. You are telling me a 44 casing. 

Q. That is what you call a housing? 

A. Well, that is what I meant — that is what I 
understand — casing — unless you mean the box 
where it was laying in. 

Q. No, I am talking about the housing — 
frame? 

A. I never knew they could use a 38 on a 
larger casing, could they? How is it possible that 
they can have a 38 cartridge in a 44, in a larger 
casing than that? 

Q. Well, that is what you did — 44 frame? 

A. You found a different revolver than mine. 

Q. Who did you discuss the question of the 
formation the character of revolver. Who did you 
talk with over that? 

A. What? 

Q. As to what sort of a revolver to buy? 

A. To nobody. I didn't have to talk to no- 
body. 

Q. How did you happen to get the 38? 

A. I asked for it. 

Mr. Zabel: 

Q. Why didn't you ask for a 32? 

A. I don't know. I tell you the other one I 
had home was a 38. 



182 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. Oh, you had another one home? 

A. Oh, not now, that is years ago. If I had 
that home I didn't have to buy it. I got the thing 
in storage. It is in the storage house if you want 
to get it. Stored with the stuff. 

Q. Where is your stuff stored? 

A. In New York. 

Q. Whereabouts? 

A. 80th street, I guess, and Third avenue. 

Q. Well, what warehouse? 

A. Well, you got to wait now until my grip 
comes here from Charleston. I got the whole 
thing. 

Q. Have you sent for your grip? 

A. I don't know. You gentlemen— told me 
that you are tending to that. 

Q. Can't you give us the name of the ware- 
house? 

A. I could not give it to you now. 

Q. What have you stored there? 

A. Five-room furniture from the old folks of 
mine. 

Q. And your revolver? 

A. Why, everything, of course, that belongs to 
the house. 

Q. How long had you had that revolver? 

A. I don't know. I could not tell you. 

Q. Are you sure it is stored there? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 183 

A. Unless they stole it. I know I stored it 
there. 

Q. Did you have a receipt for the different 
articles you stored there? 

A. Sure. I can show you that as soon as — but 
of course the revolver is not marked on that because 
the revolver is in one of the drawers, I suppose. 

Q. You don't know when you got that re- 
volver? 

A. I could not tell you. 

Q. Have you ever shot it? 

A. I shot it, I believe twice or three times dur- 
ing the 4th of July celebration out in the yard. 

Q. Had you ever shot this revolver? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. You shot it the other night. Where did you 
buy the bullets that went in that gun? 

A. The same place with the gun. 

Q. How many cartridges did you have? 

A. Did I have? Well, I bought a box of them 
and paid 55 cents for it. 

Q. Where are the rest of the cartridges? 

A. They are in the grip. 

Q. Oh, they are in your grip in Charleston? 

A. As soon as it comes over you can see it all. 

Q. You didn't bring extra cartridges with you? 

A. Yes, sir; I had. I took some out. I had 
five in the gun and I had six with me in my pocket. 



184 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. Did they find those? 

A. They have got it in the police station. 

Q. They have got those cartridges in the police 
station. Now, who hit your arm — did somebody 
hit your arm? 

A. I don't think so. 

Q. When you were coming — who was the first 
man to get hold of you — that great big man? 

A. I could not say who it was. I simply shot 
and I don't know whether I hit the man or not or 
whom I hit, but I know the first thing I went down 
and a whole lot on top. 

Q. When you aimed the revolver at Roosevelt 
was there anybody standing on each side of you? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Did you stick the gun between the heads of 
two people? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Did you say any word? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. When you fired? 

A. No, sir; I said nothing. 

Q. Talk — Did you try to pull the trigger 
again? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. You were knocked down before you could 
pull it again? 

A. Yes, sir; I was. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 185 

Q. You would have pulled it again? 

A. Perhaps I would. I don't know. 

Q. Well, now in your grip have you any liter- 
ature — any papers? 

A. I have a book in there, yes, a memorandum 
book. 

Q. Did you have any newspapers which you 
carried about — did you cut out clippings out of the 
newspapers? 

A. Oh no, no. I didn't do it. 

Q. Did you have any record that Col. Roose- 
velt that you cut out of his acts when he was com- 
missioner of police? 

A. Oh no, no. You think I'd carry that here, 
if I wanted to carry that with me ever since 1893 
when he was commissioner— you are crazy or I 
must have a whole book. 

Q. Well, did you keep any? 

A. No, sir; nothing at all. I didn't take that 
much interest. 

Q. How do you mean, you didn't take that 
much interest? 

A. I didn't feel that way about him then when 
he was police commissioner. 

Q. When did you first commence to feel that 
way? 

A. I felt it in Chicago. 

Q. That was the first time? 



186 The Attempted Assassination of 

A. The first time, yes, sir. 

Q. When was that? 

A. In fact, the first time I felt against him was 
when I had that dream against him the time Mc- 
Kinley died and then I thought I really could not 
believe in dreams, I could not go to work and 
shoot a man down because all dreams don't come 
true. 

Q. When was that? 

A. That was the same night or the evening that 
Mr. McKinley died. 

Q. How long did you feel that way about it? 

A. I felt about it. Well, have at least two 
weeks. 

Q. Did you see Col. Roosevelt at that time? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you go to Washington? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you follow him about at all? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Had you ever seen him personally prior to 
the time — 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Had you ever seen him when he was in 
New York? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. When was the first time you ever saw Col. 
Roosevelt? 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 187 

A. At Chicago. In Chattanooga. 

Q. At Chattanooga. The first time you ever 
saw him? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. Personally the first time you were ever 
near him? 

A. Yes, sir. ^ 

Q. You mean to say all the time you were liv- 
ing in New York and the times he has been going 
back and forth from New York you have never 
seen him at all? 

A. No, sir. • 

Q. Did you ever go out to Oyster Bay? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you ever go over to the Outlook office? 

A. I don't know where that is. 

Q. Well, that is a publication — Mr. Abbott's 
weekly publication in New York. 

A. I don't know where it is. I could not even 
find it. I know quite some streets in town, in the 
neighborhood. I have never been interested in 
that. I didn't know that Roosevelt had anything 
to do with the Outlook at all. 

Q. Well, you knew where his office was in 
New York? 

A. Whose office? 

Q. Col. Roosevelt. 

A. At the time he was police commissioner? 



188 The Attempted Assassination of 

Q. No, since he was president — he has been 
going back and forth in New York — 

A. Since he has been on his third term here. 

Q. I say he has been back and forth in New 
York? 

A. How could I know his office? 

Q. While he was in New York after the meet- 
ing of the Progressive party in Chicago you knew 
that, didn't you? 

A. I don't think so. I thought he was to 
Oyster Bay. I don't think that I ever read of it 
that he was in New York city. 

Q. He went to his office to the Outlook office? 

A. I have never been looking for him then, sir. 

Q. You weren't looking for him then? 

A. No, sir; I wouldn't know where to find his 
office. 

Q. When you read of the formation of the 
party in Chicago what papers did you read that in? 

A. The same papers. 

Q. New York Herald and the World? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. What you read about it then, did that rouse 
you up to anger at all? 

A. Well, not exactly anger but I was getting 
more and more convinced that this man's ambitions 
is nothing else but a blow to McKinley's death and 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 189 

he wants to get a third term and he shouldn't have 
it, and that is all. 

Q. When did you make up your mind to that 
— in August? 

A. I made up my mind pretty much in August 
and then I was corroborated during the vision I 
had on the 14th day of September. 

Q. When you say you made your mind up 
pretty much in August after the meeting of the 
party, what do you mean by that, that you thought 
of killing him then? 

A. Yes, sir, I thought of killing him then. 

Q. In August. Had you made any plans then 
to kill him? 

A. No, I had made none until the 14th. 

Q. And you thought then of doing this same 
thing? 

A. I thought about it, yes, sir; although I was 
making up my mind as to how or whether I would 
do it and I thought about it. 

Q. What time in August was that that you 
thought about it — just after you read in the papers? 

A. Yes, sir. 

Q. After the formation of the party? 

A. After the formation of the party — wasn't 
that the 7th of August? 




Schrank in County Jail. 



Kx-President Theodore Roosevelt. 191 

Q. What particular thing in the accounts of 
the papers impressed you at that time that gave you 
or caused you to make up your mind? 

A. Nothing particular but simply the fact that 
he built the new party; that he was going to take a 
third term presidentship. 

Q. Did you have any grip with you when you 
went to Chicago? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. You had no baggage when you went to that 
hotel? 

A. I never had any baggage since I left it in 
Charleston. 

Q. Bought no underwear? 

A. Yes, I bought underwear, certainly, and I 
threw the old underwear away. 

Mr. Zabel : I think that is all. 



CHAPTER XV. 
REPORT OF THE ALIENISTS. 

The report of the sanity commission follows : 
To the Honorable A. C. Backus, Judge of the Municipal Court 

of Milwaukee County: 

Pursuant to your appointment of the undersigned on the 
12th day of November, 1912, as a Commission to examine John 
Schrank with reference to his present mental condition, we re- 
spectfully submit our report. 

This report consists if : 

First: The examination of John Schrank with reference to 
his personal and family history, his present physical state, and 
his present mental state. 

Second : Inquiry by means of data furnished by the New 
York Police Department, the Magistrate of Erding, Bavaria, 
reports furnished by the Milwaukee Police Department and 
other oflficials brought in contact with him, and certain docu- 
ments furnished by the defendant himself, and others found in 
his possession, some of which are herewith submitted as ex- 
hibits,' duly numbered. 

Third : Summary and conclusions arrived at. 

PERSONAL AND FAMILY HISTORY. 

Age 36. Single. Born in Erding, Bavaria, March 5, 1876. 
Father born in Bavaria, and mother born in Bavaria. Occupa- 
tion, bar tender and saloonkeeper. No regular occupation in 
the last one and one-half years. Education, common schools in 
Bavaria from the seventh to the twelfth year; three or four 
years in night school in New York, in English. 

In early life a Roman Catholic; not a practical Catholic 
for the past 15 years. 

His father died at the age of 38 of consumption ; was a 
moderate drinker; the mother living at the age of 56 or 57. 
One brother and one sister living, in good health. One brother 
and one sister died in infancy. 

A sister of mother insane, suffered from delusions of persecu- 
tion; died of softening of the brain, so-called, in 1904, in Gaber- 
see Asylum, Bavaria. Certified by Magistrate of Erding, 
Bavaria. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 193 

Patient states he was never seriously sick. Knows of no 
serious accident or injury. Never suffered from headaches. 

Lived with grandparents from three to nine years of age; 
worked in a vegetable garden during that time, and then re- 
turned to parents. habits 

Denies excesses ; no use of tobacco until two years ago, never 
more than five or six cigars a day, average two or three cigars. 
Has generally taken about five pint bottles of beer in twenty- 
four hours, of late years. For two years, in 1902-1903, drank 
no intoxicants at all. He states he drank to slight excess at 
most half a dozen times a year. Never used drugs of any kind. 
Denies all venereal diseases, and presents no physical evidence 
of them. His usual habit was to retire before 10 o'clock at 

"'^ ■ PRESENT PHYSICAL STATE. 

Height 5 feet 4>4 inches in stocking feet. Weight, 160 
pounds, with clothing. Is right-handed. Head presents no 
scars or injuries or evidence of injuries or irregularities of 
cranial bones; normal in shape, except measurements over left 
parietal bone from ear to median line at vertex is 1.25 centi- 
meters larger than the right. Cephalic index 80. Cranial 
capacity normal. External ears normal in shape. Holds head 
slightly tilted to left. Shape of hard palate, mouth and teeth 
normal. Maxillary bones normal except lower jaw slightly 
prognathic. Blonde hair. Eyes, bluish gray. Complexion fair. 
Tongue, slight yellowish coating, edges clean. Appetite and 
general nutrition good. Stomach, digestion, bowels normal. 
Sleep good. State of heart and arteries normal. Blood pres- 
sure 125 to 130 systolic; 115 to 120 diastolic. Pulse 82-86. 
Temperature Nov. 12, 1912, P. M., 99.4. Nov. 14, normal. 
No scars on genitals. Urine practically a normal specimen. 

NEUROLOGICAL. 

The Eyes — Light, accommodation and sympathetic reflex 
present, but somewhat slow. Slight inequality of pupils, right 
distinctly larger than left. Color sense normal. No contrac- 
tion of visual field. Slight horizontal nystagmus in both eyes on 
extreme outward rotation of the eyeballs. (Pupils equal and 
normal Nov. 20th, 1912.) 



194 The Attempted Assassination of 

After above symptoms ascertained, 1.40 grain euphthalmine 
inserted, and examination of eye grounds showed no optic 
•atrophy. The right eye ground (retina) was slightly higher in 
color than the left. 

Hearing very acute, both sides. 

Sense of taste and smell normal. 

Tactile, pain, temperature and weight sense normal. 

Deep Reflexes — Knee, reflex, right, irregularly present, 
regular on reinforcement; knee, left, absent; brought out by 
reinforcement irregularly. 

Myotatic irritability of forearm, right markedly heightened ; 
left slightly heightened. 

No ankle-clonus. 

Superficial Reflexes — Abdominal reflex present. Epigastric 
reflex absent. Cremasteric reflex, active both sides. No Oppen- 
heim reflex. No Babinski reflex. Plantar reflex : right markedly 
heightened ; left heightened. 

Musculature — Arm and leg showed slightly diminished 
power on right side. The left side stronger, though subject 
right-handed. 

Dynamometer, right 90, 90 (two tests) ; and left 100, 100 
(two tests). 

No Romberg symptom, and no inco-ordination of upper and 
lower extremities. 

Gait and station normal. 

Slight tremor of fingers, noticeable under mental excite- 
ment. At times slight tremor of lips. 

EXAMINATION OF PRESENT MENTAL STATE. 

Tests for attention show normal conditions. 

Tests for memory, general and special, show normal con- 
ditions. 

Tests for association of ideas and words showed special bear- 
ing upon his delusional state. 

Logical power good, except as limited by his delusions. 

Judgment the same. 

Has no "insight" as to his own mental condition. 

Emotional tests show tone of feeling exalted. 

Orientation correct as to tTme and place. 

Delusions present, as subsequently set forth. 



CHAPTER XVI. 
FINDING OF THE ALIENISTS. 

We find that John Schrank came to New York at the age 
of 12, and lived with his uncle and aunt as foster parents, who 
kept a saloon at 370 East Tenth street. New York City. 

Before coming to this country he ha d 5 years of the public 
schools of his native village in Bavaria, anJ afteTarrival in this 
country his only schooling was such as he could obtain at night 
schools in New York during 3 or 4 years. 

Up to this time no peculiarity had been observed in him, 
from any evidence available. We note the fact that he was most 
especially interested in history and government, as illustrated 
by political writings and by the Bible. He speaks frequently 
of his very great admiration for the character of George Wash- 
ington. 

At 15 or 16 years of age he became greatly interested in 
poetry. This perhaps corresponds to the period of development 
at which eccentricities are wont to appear. 

He represents that in the saloon in which he worked he was 
chiefly engaged in supplying beer to residents of neighboring 
tenements; that there was no gambling or other immoral conduct 
practiced or encouraged in this business place. He went on for 
over 12 years as barkeeper. His uncle and aunt had during this 
time accumulated means for the purchase of a small tenement. 
At the death of the uncle and aunt in 1910 and 1911 the de-' 
fendant came into possession of this property. 

In the last year and a half has not been in any regular busi- 
ness or employment, and spent his time in long walks about New 
York and Brooklyn, during which he meditated upon poetical 
compositions, and political and historical questions, jotting down 
ideas upon loose slips of paper as they came to him, night or day, 
forming the basis of his poems. He spent his evenings in a 
saloon, retiring early. The average daily quantity of stimulants 
or beer taken by him was insufficient to produce intoxication. 
He also states that in 1902 and 1903, for a period of nearly 2 
years, he drank no intoxicants at all. 



196 The Attempted Assassination of 

He states that in 1901, between 1 and 2 o'clock in the 
morning of the day after President McKinley's death he expe- 
rienced a vivid dream, in which he appeared to be in a room 
with many flowers and a casket, and saw a figure sit up in the 
casket, which he says was the form and figure of the assassinated 
President McKinley, who then pointed to a corner of the room, 
and said, "Avenge my death." He then looked Vv^here the finger 
pointed and saw a form clad in a Monkish garb, and recog- 
nized the form and face of this individual as the form and face 
of Theodore Roosevelt. 

At the time this made a strong impression, but was not 
dwelt upon especially except in the light of later events. 

Prior to the nomination of Colonel Roosevelt for the Presi- 
dency in the year 1912. he had felt great interest in the political 
campaign, and had read articles expressing great bitterness to- 
ward the idea of a third term, and toward Colonel Roosevelt 
personally in the new^spapers of New York, and after the period 
when the nomination of Colonel Roosevelt began to be actively 
agitated, meditated more deeply upon these matters. He had 
always studied with the greatest interest the questions of free 
government, as illustrated by the Declaration of Independence, 
and Washington's Farewell Address. In this connection, the 
Monroe doctrine also assumed great importance in his mind, 
and the converse thereof, the duty of this nation to refrain from 
war of conquest; and out of these meditations grew what he 
elaborated into his declaration as to the unwritten laws, or 
"The Four Pillars of our Republic," namely (1) the Third 
Term Tradition, (2) the Monroe Doctrine, (3) that only a 
Protestant by creed can become president, (4) no wars of con- 
quest. This document, hereunto annexed as Exhibit 1, fully sets 
forth his views on these subjects. 

These "four unwritten laws" had assumed in his mind a 
character of sacredness. They were "sacred traditions" to be 
maintained at all hazards, and, as subsequently appeared, even 
the hazard of life. 

The following are some quotations from this document: 

"Tradition is an unwritten law." 

"I would doubt the right of a court to have jurisdiction 
over a man who had defended tradition of his country against 
violation." 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 197 

"The oldest of these traditions is the 'third term tradition,' 
it has never been violated and is an effective safeguard against 
unscrupulous ambition, but never before has been established a 
test case of its inviolability as a warning to coming adventurers." 

"For the first time in American history we are confronted 
by a man to whom practically nothing is sacred, and he pretends 
to stand above tradition." 

"Anybody v/ho finances a Third Term Movement should be 
expatriated and his Vv^ealth confiscated." 

"The dangers in this campaign are these, the third term.er is 
sure that the nomination has been stolen, and that the country 
and the job belongs to him, therefore, if he gets honestly de- 
feated in November he will again yell that the crooks of both 
parties have stolen the election and should he carry a solid West, 
he and the hungry office-seekers would not hesitate to take up 
arms to take by force what is denied him by the people, then 
we face a Civil War, ****** and that he who wilfully 
invites war deserves death. We would then be compelled to 
wash out the sin of violating the Third Term with the blood of 
our sons. Yet this is not the gravest danger we are facing. 
We have allowed an adventurer to circumtravel the Union with 
military escort with the torch of revolution in his hands to burn 
down the very house we live in." 

"Have we learned no lesson about a one man's rule expe- 
rienced in France with such disastrous results as the end of the 
reign of Napoleon I and Napoleon III." 

"Are we trying to establish here a system like our ancestors 
have done in Europe, which all revolutions of a thousand years 
could not abolish." 

"Are we overthrowing our Republic, v/hile the heroes of the 
French revolutions, and the martyrs of 1848 gladly gave their 
lives to establish Republican institutions." 

"The abolition of the Third Term tradition is the abolition 
of the Monroe doctrine also." 

"Hardly any revolution has started without pretending that 
their movement was progressive." 

"The prudence of our forefathers has delivered to us an 
equally sacred unwritten law which reads that no president 
should embrace another creed than Protestant, if possible, a sect 
of the English Church. I am a Roman Catholic. I love my 



198 The Attempted Assassination of 

religion but I hate my church as long as the Roman parish is 
not independent from Rome, as long as Catholic priests are pre- 
vented from getting married, as long as Rome is still more en- 
gaged in politics and accumulation of money contrary to the 
teachings of the Lord. The Roman Catholic Church is not the 
religion for a president of the United States." 

"The Fourth unwritten law, which is practically supple- 
mentary to the second, we find in George Washington's Fare- 
well Address, where he advises us to live in peace with your 
neighbor. We have no right to start a war of conquest." 

In his examination in this connection he stated as follows: 
'Tour-fifths of the United States would take up arms to defend 
the Third Term tradition. Trying to get perpetual power and 
dictatorship would justify killing." 

He also said he would be justified to the same extent, that 
is, by killing, a man who would seek the presidency and was a 
Roman Catholic; and also for a man who would start a war 
for conquest; and he thought also of the possibility of foreign 
powers to help Roosevelt possibly to annex the Panama Canal 
and break down the Monroe Doctrine. He said he believed 
the country would be facing a civil war if Roosevelt went on 
as he had done. 

He gives as a reason for his present attack upon Roosevelt, 
that he did not wish to give him (Roosevelt) an opportunity 
to plead that no defense of the Third Term tradition had been 
made in 1912 should he aspire to another term in 1916. Asked 
as to how he reconciled his act with the commandment "Thou 
shalt not kill," he replied that, "religion is the fundamental law 
of human order, but to kill to try and do a good thing, and to 
avenge McKinley's murder, justifies the killing." 

The proof of his position came to him in his dream and in 
his vision. 

"Roosevelt's ambition and conduct proves to every man that 
he was back of McKinley's assassination in some way or other." 

The defendant says that he prayed God to find a leader 
among men who would take this responsibility, and he expected 
all along someone else would do this thing, but no one did it, 
and as he was a single man of 36, without a family, and thought 
the deed was a good deed, and it made no difference to him, he 
was willing to sacrifice his life for that end, even if he were torn 




Henry F, Cochems. 

(Who was in the Automobile with Col. Roosevelt when the 

Ex-President was Shot.) 



200 The Attempted Assassination of 

to pieces by the mob. He therefore concluded that it was his 
mission, and desired to make of this a test case. 

He thinks the election returns corroborate the fact that the 
people have been awakened to the idea of no Third Term. 

In the progress of the campaign, when the progressive move- 
ment had taken shape, and Colonel Roosevelt had been nomi- 
nated as the head of a third party, and on August 7th, 1912, the 
dream which had come to him in 1901, as above related, began 
to assume more importance, and special significance in his mind. 
He felt extreme agitation on this subject continuously. On the 
morning of September 15th, 1912, the anniversary of the date 
of his dream in 1901, having retired as usual the night before 
with his manuscript by his bedside, he suddenly awakened 
between 1 and 2 A. M., with the completion of a poem entitled 
"Be a Man" uppermost in his mind. 

We insert the poem at this point : 

1. Be a man from early to late 

When you rise in the morning 
Till you go to bed 
Be a man. 

2. Is your country in danger 

And you are called to defend 
Where the battle is hottest 

And death be the end 
Face it and be a man. 

3. When you fail in business 

And your honor is at stake 
When you bury all your dearest 

And your heart would break 
Face it and be a man. 

4. But when night draws near 

And you hear a knock 
And a voice should whisper your 

Time is up ; Refuse to answer 
As long as you can 

Then face it and be a man. 

He found his ideas were taking shape, and getting up he sat 
writing, when he suddenly became aware of a voice speaking 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 201 

in a low and sad tone, "Let no murderer occupy the presidential 
chair for a third term. Avenge my death !" He felt a light 
touch upon his left shoulder, and turning, saw the face of 
former President McKinley. It bore a ghostlike aspect. This 
experience had a decisive effect in fixing in his mind the iniquity 
of the third term, and from this time he questioned as to his 
duty in the matter, and he finally regarded this vision and its 
connection with the exact anniversary of the dream as a com- 
mand to kill Roosevelt, and as an inspiration. When asked 
by us whether he considered this as imagination or as inspiration 
and a command from God, while showing some reluctance to 
claim the vision as an inspiration, he finally answered decisively 
that he did. 

When asked whether a man had a right to take a weapon 
and hunt down a man who had violated tradition, he submitted 
his written statement in reply, which is hereto annexed as Ex- 
hibit 2, some quotations from which are as follows : 

"I should say where self-sacrifice begins the power of law 
comes to an end, and if I knew that my death during my act 
would have this tradition more sacred I would be sorry that my 
life was spared so convinced am I of my right to act as I did 
that if I were ever a free man again I would at once create an 
Order of Tradition." 

"I presume you men would declare Joan d'Arc, the Maid 
of Orleans insane because the Holy Virgin appeared to her in 
a vision." 

"When we read that God had appeared to Moses in the 
shape of a burning thorn bush, then again as a cloud, we will 
find many people who doubt the appearance of God to man in 
human or other shape." 

"Why then in cases of dire national needs should not the 
God appear to one of us in vision." 

The defendant states that at no time and under no circum- 
stances did he communicate to anyone his intention. In fact, he 
kept it as an inviolable secret and took measures to throw off 
the scent persons who might inquire about his leaving New 
York. The defendant stated in this connection that he did not 
wish to commit the act in New York, as it would then be 
claimed that he had been "hired by Wall Street" and in that 
way the real purpose of the act would be obscured. 



CHAPTER XVII. 
SCHRANK DESCRIBES SHOOTING. 

(before sanity commission.) 

On September 21, 1912, he left New York City, having first 
borrowed $350, and purchased a 38-caIiber revolver, for which 
he paid $14. His efforts from this time were continuous to 
come within shooting distance of Colonel Roosevelt. He 
missed him at Chattanooga and at Atlanta, and then went to 
Evansville, where he remained seven days awaiting Colonel 
Roosevelt's return to the West. He then sought to come within 
range of Colonel Roosevelt in Chicago, and states that he waited 
for him at the exit of the building, where he spoke, but found 
afterwards that he had left by a different exit. He then pre- 
ceded him to Milwaukee, arriving here at 1 o'clock P. M. the 
day preceding the attack. 

On the evening of the shooting Schrank arrived at the 
hotel, where he had learned Colonel Roosevelt would stay, in 
advance of the time he was expected to start for the place of 
meeting. When a crowd began to collect around the automo- 
bile awaiting Colonel Roosevelt at the curb, he went into the 
street, standing near the automobile in a line just behind the 
front seat on the left hand side opposite the chaufifeur's seat. 
He says, 

"Seeing him enter the automobile and just about to seat 
himself, I fired. I did not pick any particular spot on his body. 
The crowd was all around me and in front of me. The next 
minute I was knocked down, but was not rendered insensible, 
and the gun was knocked out of my hands." 

The defendant insists that he said nothing during his as- 
sault. He was then dragged to the sidewalk, and getting on 
his feet was hurried into the hotel, and the doors were locked. 
Here he said nothing, and was taken by the police through the 
back door to police headquarters. 

From the examination at police headquarters, made at 9 :25 
P. M., October 14, 1912, by the Chief of Police, John T. Jans- 
sen, we find that he objected to telling his name, but did so 
when it was insisted upon. We also find that his statements 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 203 

made to the police concerning his following and attempting to 
gain access to Colonel Roosevelt, and his visits to various local- 
ities correspond, and his explanations of his acts agree with 
those made to us. 

Some of his statements to the Chief of Police, are as follows, 
as extracted from document submitted herewith, marked Ex- 
hibit 3. 

"Q. Why did you want to meet him ? 

A. Because I wanted to put him out of the way. A man 
that wants a third term has no right to live. 

Q, That is, you wanted to kill him? 

A. I did. 

Q. Have you any other reason in wanting to kill him? 

A. I have. 

Q. What is that? 

A. I had a dream several j^ears ago that Mr. McKinley ap- 
peared to me and he told me that Mr. Roosevelt is practically 
his real murderer, and not this here Czolgosz." 

* * * 

"Q. Did you know Johann Most when he was alive? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did you ever hear him talk? 

A. No, sir. 

Q. Did j^ou ever hear Emma Goldman ? 

A. No, sir ; I am not an anarchist or socialist or democrat 
or republican; I just took up the thing the way I thought it was 
best to do." 

(It seems worth while to note that the defendant differs from 
many assassins of rulers or prospective rulers in having no 
anarchistic ideas or connections, but rather that he intended to 
be an upholder of established government.) 

* * * 

"Mr. Grant was refused" (a third term) "and he was 
satisfied ; this man was refused and he is not satisfied ; it's gone 
beyond limits ; if he keeps on doing this after election, he can't 
possibly carry a solid Western state ; the next thing we will 
have a civil war, because he will say the scoundrels and thieves 
and crooks stole my nomination, and now they will steal my 



204 The Attempted Assassination of 

election, and they will take up arms in all the Western states; 
we are facing a civil war just to keep him in a third term." 

Q. Where did you get all this idea from? 

A. I have been reading history all the time, 

* * * 

Q. What schooling did you have? 

A. Well, I have attended school in the old country, and I 
attended night school in New York for about four winters ; 
that's all the schooling I had. 

Q. You haven't a very good education then? 

A. Indeed I ain't. 

Q. Have you always enjoyed good health? 

A. Yes, sir ; I am a healthy sane man, never been sick. 

Q. Well, do you believe that that is a sane act that you 
committed this evening? 

A. I believe that is my duty as a citizen to do, it's the duty 
of every citizen to do so. 

Q. Well, how did you happen to get the idea that it was 
your duty among all the people that live in the United States? 

A. I don't know, I thought maybe somebody else might do 
it before I got there. 

Q. And you spoke to no one about your intention on all the 
route you took concerning this, nobody? 

A. No, sir; nobody." 

While in jail the prisoner prepared a written defense, which 
we submit herewith as Exhibit 4, and we extract certain sen- 
tences from the same, as follows : 

"Gentlemen of the Jury, I appeal to you as men of honor, 
I greet you Americans and countrymen and fathers of sons and 
daughters. I wish to apologize to the community of Milwau- 
kee for having caused on October 14th last, great excitement; 
bitter feeling, and expenses." 

* * * 

"Gentlemen of the Jury: When on September 14th last 
I had a vision, I looked into the dying eyes of the late President 
McKinley, when a voice called me to avenge his death, I was 
convinced that my life was coming soon to an end, and I was at 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 205 

once happy to know that my real mission on this earth was to 
die for my country and the cause of Republicanism." 

* * * 

"You see that I have appeared here today without assistance 
of a counsellor at law, without any assistance save that of God, 
the Almighty, who is ever with him who is deserted, because I 
am not here to defend myself nor my actions." 

* * * 

"The law I have violated for which you will punish me is 
not in any statute book." 

* * * 

"The shot at Milwaukee which created an echo in all parts 
of the world was not a shot fired at the citizen Roosevelt, not a 
shot at an ex-president, not a shot at the candidate of a so-called 
prog. pty. (Progressive party), not a shot to influence the pend- 
ing election, not a shot to gain for me notoriety; no, it was 
simply to once and forever establish the fact that any man who 
hereafter aspires to a third presidential term will do so at the 
risk of his life." 

"If I do not defend tradition I cannot defend the country 
in case of war. You may as well send every patriot to prison." 

(As showing the erratic reasoning of the defendant, the fol- 
lowing passage, intimating that the assassination of President 
McKinley was a part of a conspiracy to elevate Colonel Roose- 
velt to a permanent control of the destinies of the United 
States, we quote further:) 

"Political murders have occurred quite often, committed by 
some power that works in the dark and only too frequently of 
late the assassin was classed as an anarchist, but the real in- 
stigators could never be brought to justice. Whoever the direct 
murderer of President McKinley has been it could never be 
proven that he has ever been affiliated with any anarchistic or 
similar society, but we may well conclude that the man who in 
years after willingly violated the third unwritten law of the 
country whenever he thought it profitable to change his creed 
while president, perhaps to the mother of monarchies." 

(From the remarks of the prisoner in our examination of 
him, we find by "the mother of monarchies" that he refers to the 
Roman Catholic Church.) 



206 The Attempted Assassination of 

We further quote : 

"Such was his fear that his machine, built up in 7^ years 
will be destroyed over night, that he threatened not to leave the 
chair unless he were allowed to nominate his successor." 

"Gentlemen of the jury: The 3t (third termer) 'never 
again will I run for pres.' (president) has a parallel in the his- 
tory of Rome. Whoever read the history of Julius Caesar knows 
that this smart politician while elected dictator managed to be- 
come so popular with the people that they offered him the kingly 
crown, but J. Caesar knew that he had to bide his time, that 
the rest of Senators know of his ambition, and after refusing 
three times he knew they would offer it to him a fourth time, 
and when then he accepted it he was murdered for ambition's 
sake." 

"He" (Colonel Roosevelt) "was ambitiously waiting for the 
Government at Washington to start a military intervention in 
Mexico, but the leaders of the Republican party feared that the 
3t (third termer) would muster an army of volunteer Rough 
Riders and return at election as the conquering hero." 

"The danger even more grave than civil war is the possi- 
bility of intervention of foreign powers, who may help the 3t 
(third termer) in order to keep the Union disunited and sep- 

"We would at once realize that we are surrounded by a 
pack of hungry wolves ready to destroy this hated Republic, 
ready to destroy Monroe Doctrine, ready to annex the Panama 
Canal and the great land of the brave and free, the home many 
millions free people, the dream of all heroes and martyrs for 
political freedom to 1848 would have ceased to be owing to the 
ambitions of one man, and one man's rule. I hope that the shot 
at Milwaukee has awakened the patriotism of the American 
nation." 

"I have been accused of having selected a state where capital 
punishment is abolished. I would say that I did not know the 
laws of any state I travelled through. It would be ridiculous 
to fear death after the act as I expected to die during the act, 
and not live to tell the story, and if I knew that my death would 
have made the third term tradition more sacred, I am sorry I 
could not die for my country." 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 207 

"Now, Honorable Men of the Jury, I wish to say no more, 
in the name of God go and do your duty, and only countries 
who ask admission by popular vote and accept the popular vote 
never wage a war of conquest murder for to steal abolishes 
opportunity for ambitious adv. (adventurers). 

"All political adventurers and military leaders have adopted 
the career of conquering heroes wholesale murder, wholesale 
robbers called national aggrandizement. Prison for me is like 
martyrdom to me, like going to war. Before me is the spirit of 
George Washington, behind me, that of McKinley." 

(The last sentence the prisoner explained, was written 
hastily, and he expected to revise it. ) 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
CONCLUSION OF COMMISSION. 

From the testlmon}' of the jailor who had been in charge 
from the date of Schrank's arrest to the present date, we learn 
that he was a quiet, pleasant man, well-behaved in all respects, 
and fastidious as to dress and food, uniformly cheerful and 
happy. It was noticeable that he showed much less concern or 
anxiety as to his fate than the average prisoner. This is also 
corroborated by the examination of a detective concerned in 
his arrest. 

The impression we have derived from the demeanor of the 
prisoner in our several examinations is that he is truthful in his 
statements and shows no desire to conceal anything. He un- 
doubtedly has an elevated idea of his importance, but is free 
from bombast. In the course of his examination when the ques- 
tion of his views or opinions about himself came up he drew from 
his pocket the document herewith submitted as Exhibit 4, which 
he says he prepared as a defense, saying: "Perhaps I can help 
you, Gentlemen." He has shown every disposition to assist us 
in arriving at facts. He shows a knowledge and command of 
the English language unusual in a foreigner v/ho has only had 
very limited schooling. He is self-confident, profoundly self- 
satisfied; is dignified, fearless, courteous and kindly. He shows 
a sense of humor and is cheerful and calm under circumstances 
that severely test those qualities. Beneath all of this is an air 
which is illustrated by his concluding sentence, that the spirit of 
George Washington is before him, that of McKinley behind 
him. He gives the impression that he feels himself to be an 
instrument in the hands of God, and that he is one of the band 
of historic heroes paralleled by such characters as Joan d'Arc 
and other saviours of nations. He undoubtedly considers him- 
self a man of heroic mold. At no time did he express or exhibit 
remorse for his act. 

SUMMARY. 

We have limited the scope of our investigations to the ques- 
tions that we have been asked to determine and summarize 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 209 

briefly: John Schrank, age 36 years, single, barkeeper and 
saloon keeper, and of limited educational opportunities, with 
insane heredity (see Exhibit 5), was born in Bavaria, on March 
5, 1876, and came to this country twelve years later. Appa- 
rently he developed normally, but early in life showed a par- 
ticular fondness for the study of the histories of this and other 
countries, and also for the composition of poetry. In the course 
of his studies of history, and especially of the Constitution of 
the United States, and of Washington's Farewell Address, he 
developed the belief that this Republic is based upon the founda- 
tion of four unwritten laws, to which he also refers as the 
"Four Sacred Traditions," as is more fully set forth in the pre- 
ceding report. 

In 1901 he had a very vivid dream, which at that time he 
recognized as only a dream, the memory of which has frequently 
recurred to him ever since. In the course of a pre-convention 
campaign, the belief that the four unwritten laws or the "Four 
Sacred Traditions" are in danger comes to him, and later, upon 
the nomination of a presidential candidate by the Progressive 
Party, he begins to attach particular significance to the dream he 
had in 1901. He meditates deeply upon this and, in the course 
of a few weeks there appears to him a vision accompanied by a 
voice which, in effect, commands the killing of the man through 
whose acts and machinations he believes the sacred traditions to 
be endangered, and who, he also believes is, through a conspi- 
racy, concerned in the assassination of a former president. He 
continues to ponder upon the subjects set forth, awaiting the 
appearance of a person who would carry out the act suggested 
by the vision, but shortly arrives at the conclusion that he, and 
not someone else, is the chosen instrument. He at once sets 
forth to accomplish his mission, following his victim until he 
finally comes up with him. 

During his examination as to his sanity, he conducts himself 
in perfect accord with his beliefs, and expresses a regret at not 
having died at the hands of the mob if such a result would have 
proven of benefit to his chosen country. 



CHAPTER XIX. 
SCHRANK DISCUSSES VISIONS. 

(by JOHN FLAMMANG SCHRANK.) 

Has a man a right to take a weapon and hunt down a man 
who has violated tradition? In answer to this I would like to 
ask the gentleman the following question. How and by what 
means would you expect to withhold from a man that right. 
You know that according to the old Roman law the atonement 
for the taking of a life has been the giving of a life, and to this 
day our power of state with the laws and instruments for pun- 
ishment is limited to the taking of man's life there is no severer 
penalty than death sentence. Now then when a man concludes 
to take a weapon and hunt down another man and he then Avil- 
lingly sacrifices his own life in defense we say of tradition, does 
such man then not willingly give what otherwise the law could 
take from him, is then not the right with him, I should say where 
self -sacrifice begins to power of law comes to an end and if I 
knew that my death during my act would have this tradition 
more sacred. 

I would be sorry that my life was spared, so convinced am I 
of my act to act as I did, that if I were ever a free man again 
I would at once create an order of tradition sole puropse to 
defend it. 

You gentlemen claim that you would think a man insane, 
that could have such things as a vision appear to him. There 
might be exceptions, but I disagree with you in making this the 
rule. Then I presume you men would declare Joan d'Arc the 
Maid of Orleans insane because the Holy Virgin appeared her 
in a vision. France as a nation passed in those days through 
a grave trial, her very existence as a nation was at stake. To 
our shame we must admit that while we prosper and are far 
from danger we hardly ever give it a thought, that all our com- 
fort is granted to us by God the Almighty, and it is an old 
saying that when the danger is over the saints are mocked. 
But in davs of hard stress, dire need and want, we at once knew 



Kx-President Theodore Roosevelt 211 

that we are indebted to a power above us, we at once realize that 
we are sinners, we feel that our good spirit is a small particle to 
the Holy Spirit God that we are helpless children and related 
to the good father God. We then pray with innermost contri- 
tion that God may forgive, that God may enlighten one of us 
that God may find a leader among us. 

And such is the mercy of God that for the repentance of one 
man for the acknowledgement for one good deed, God will for- 
give the sins of a whole nation. When we read about the 
destruction of Sodom Gomorrha, when Lot asked the Lord, 
wouldst Thou spare these cities if there were ten honorable and 
just men within its walls and God answered, if I could find one 
honorable and just man I would spare that people. 

We may conclude from these words that God had long be- 
fore this forsaken them when a nation is confronted with grave 
trials it is then nearing the boundary line of God's patience, no 
doubt the people of Sodom had arrived there and God had 
weighed their deeds and found them too light he would not 
enlighten one of them to be a leader and who would impress 
upon his people to come back to the safe avenue of God and 
leave the road of destruction. In our health and prosperity we 
are too easily over-confident and self-possessed when we read 
that God had appeared to Moses in the shape of a burning 
thorn bush, then again as a cloud, we will find many people who 
doubt the appearance of God to man in human or other shape. 
When I see a tree growing out of rocks it appears to me as if 
God spoke to me that he wants all people to live a temperate life 
as it requires but little to live and proper as is shown in that 
tree. Now then does God appear to us in our journey through 
this life. Has he ever appeared to you. Has there never been 
a time when you would say, O what a lucky dog I was that I 
did not do this or that. Have you ever refused for some reason 
an invitation to a joy ride, a pleasure trip or others, and after 
you would find one or the other of your friends killed while you 
escaped. Everyone of us is confronted at once in life with a 
grave trial which requires all the good in you to overcome 
temptation and find the right way out of it, is not this the secret 
assistance of God the Almighty when you appeal to Him and He 
weighs your deeds and either enlightens you or punishes Science 



212 The Attempted Assassination of 

discoveries. When then in cases of dire national needs should 
not God appear to one of us in vision the greatest injustice. 

(Schrank's copy is followed closely in all presented here 
from his pen.) 

alienists' conclusions. 
Our conclusions are as follows : 

First — John Schrank is suffering from insane delusions, 
grandiose in character, and of the systematized variety. 

Second — In our opinion he is insane at the present time. 
Third — On account of the connection existing between his 
delusions and the act with which he stands charged, we are of 
the opinion that he is unable to confer intelligently with counsel 
or to conduct his defense. 

Dated, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Nov. 22nd, 1912. 
Respectfully submitted, 

Richard Dewey, M. D., 

Chairman. 
W. F. Becker, M. D. 
D. W. Harrington; M. D. 
Frank Studley, M. D. 
Wm. F. Wegge, M. D. 

Commissioners. 



CHAPTER XX. 
SCHRANK'S DEFENSE. 

John Flammang Schrank expected to conduct 
his own defense before a jury, if tried for his as- 
sault upon ex-President Roosevelt. 

This is demonstrated by the fact that he had 
prepared a defe^ise to be read to the jury. In this 
defense he alluded to the fact that he "is not repre- 
sented by counsel." 

This defense is remarkable in that it shows 
clearly the thought which overcame his mental 
strength. 

Schrank's defense is presented as he wrote it, 
with the exception of two or three corrections to 
enable readers to realize what Schrank is trying to 
say. The defense was prepared by Schrank in the 
county jail. He was writing it when it was report- 
ed that he was writing verse. The defense fol- 
lows: 

Gentlemen of the jury: I appeal to you as 
men of honor. I greet you Americans and coun- 
trymen and fathers of sons and daughters. I wish 
to apologize to the community of Milwaukee for 
having caused on October 14 last great excitement, 
most bitter feeling and expenses. I wish to apolo- 
gize to you honorable men of the jury that I am 



214 The Attempted Assassination of 

causing to you this day unpleasantness in asking 
you to pass a verdict in a matter which should have 
better been tried by a higher than earthly court. 

Gentlemen of the jury, when on September 14 
last during a vision I looked into the dying eyes of 
the late President McKinley, when a voice called 
me to avenge his death, I was convinced that my 
life was coming soon to an end, and I was at once 
happy to know that my real mission on this earth 
was to die for my country and the cause of Repub- 
licanism. 

Gentlemen of the jury, you see that I have ap- 
peared here today without the assistance of a coun- 
sellor at law, without any assistance save that of 
God the Almighty, who is ever with him who is 
deserted, because I am not here to defend myself 
nor my actions. I am here today to defend the 
spirit of forefathers with words what I have de- 
fended with the weapon in my hand, that is the tra- 
dition of the four unwritten laws of this country. 
Tradition is above written statute, amended and in- 
effective. Tradition is sacred and inviolable, ir- 
revocable. Tradition makes us a distinct nation. 
Order of tradition. The law I have violated for 
which you will punish me is not in any statute 
book. Gentlemen of the jury, the shot at Mil- 
waukee, which created an echo in all parts of the 
world, was not a shot fired at the citizen Roosevelt, 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 215 

not a shot at an ex-President, not a shot at the candi- 
date of a so-called Progressive party, not a shot 
to influence the pending election, not a shot to gain 
for me notoriety. No, it was simply to once and 
forever establish the fact that any man w^ho here- 
after aspires to a third presidential term, vs^ill do 
so at the risk of his life. If I cannot defend 
tradition I cannot defend the country in case 
of war. You may as well send every patriot to 
prison. It was to establish a precedent for the 
third term tradition, which for the first time in 
the history of the United States one man dared to 
challenge and to violate. 

Gentlemen of the jury, the third term tradition 
is the most sacred, because it has been established 
by the greatest champion of liberty in all ages past 
and to come by our first President, George Wash- 
ington, when he modestly declined a third term 
nomination by saying that two terms are enough 
for the best of Presidents. The two great Ameri- 
can political parties have since guarded this tradi- 
tion most jealously, have regarded it as a safe- 
guard against the ambitions of probable adventur- 
ers. The great Republican party, the party of an 
Abe Lincoln, the party of the new U. S., that party 
as a medium between government and the people, 
the party to which we are greatly indebted for our 
achievements and our greatness among the family 
of nations, it was that party that was destined to 



216 The Attempted Assassination of 

give birth to and to nurse the first offender of that 
tradition, who gradually proved to be the evil 
spirit of the country, and that great party which 
was born during a national crisis and which had 
bravely faced and overcome many a grave trial, 
nobly faced the coming storm and survived it with 
its honor unimpaired. 

Gentlemen of the jury, when we inquire into 
the past of that man, we will find that his ambi- 
tious plans have all been filed and laid down long 
before he has been President. All doubt that 
these plans were towards establishing at the least a 
perpetual presidency in these United States have 
been removed during last summer, when a certain 
senator unearthed from within the library of the 
white house a written document deposited there 
during the third termer's presidency. This docu- 
ment was an order for repairing to be done in the 
white house, and this order closed with the fol- 
lowing words : "These alterations should be done, 
to last during my lifetime." When the third term- 
er was informed of the finding of this document, 
he admitted and absorbed the all-important matter 
by simply saying: "Some people have no more 
brains than guinea pigs." 

Gentlemen of the jury, his rough rider mas- 
querade during the Spanish-American war was his 
first important step towards his goal, it gained for 
him the governorship of the Empire state and that 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 217 

important office made him an influential factor in 
the councils of the Republican party. During his 
term as secretary of the navy he gained the popu- 
larity among the men in that branch of the mailed 
fist of the country by increasing the salaries of those 
men, who might some day be of vital benefit to his 
cause. The Republican leaders of those days 
were soon aware of the dangerous ambitions of 
this man and also knew that this man would never 
be safe enough to fill the highest office of the na- 
tion, for this reason these men thought it wise to 
make him vice-Presidential candidate on the same 
ticket with McKinley, for it must not be new to 
you that the office of a vice-President has always 
been regarded as the suicide to a man's political 
ambitions. But, gentlemen of the jury, now came 
the time when a man's ambitions blindfolded him 
to all reason. The desire to overcome the obstacle 
robbed him of his sane judgment, and in such a case 
the spoiler invites himself, political murders have 
occurred quite often, committed by som.e power 
that works in the dark and only too frequently of 
late the assassin was classed as an anarchist, but 
the real instigators could never be brought before 
justice. Whoever the direct murderer of McKin- 
ley has been it could never be proven that he has 
ever been affiliated with any anarchistic or similar 
society, but we may well conclude that the man 
who in years after so willingly violated the first 



218 The Attempted Assassination of 

unwritten law, which is the third term tradition, 
may have readily promised to violate the third un- 
written law of the country whenever he thought 
it profitable to change his creed while president, 
perhaps to the mother of monarchies. 

Gentlemen of the jury, a man's first presidential 
term begins when he takes the oath of office and 
constitutes a full term if it will only last twenty- 
four hours after oath and a man's third term is his 
third when he seeks it or is given to him twenty 
years or more after his second. When Roose- 
velt took the oath of office at McKinley's de- 
parture, he had ceased to be a Republican. He 
at once began to build a political machine of his 
own. It was then in fact that his one man party 
so-called Progressive party was born, parts of 
which we find later in the insurgents, handicapping 
Mr. Taft wherever they could. Later in August 
at the convention of treason he took the material 
where and as he found we see him trying hard to 
bring the money power of the union into his serv- 
ice, we find him extorting large sums for his polit- 
ical campaigns from the so-called despisable 
trusts, since then we became accustomed to look 
upon every man of wealth and the great industrials 
corporations who have been and are today of in- 
calculable value and benefit to our national welfare, 
as nothing more or less than contemptible crimin- 
als, whom he ofifended in the most profane Ian- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 219 

guage during his crusade against them, if they re- 
fused to become a part of his machine. At the de- 
cline of his second term the remainder of the Re- 
publican party, those who had not been absorbed 
by "my policies" could no longer be in doubt as to 
the third termer's real intentions, and for the first 
time the third termer realized the magnitude and 
importance of the third term tradition and most 
men of influence in those used their power to scare 
him out of office at the same time comforting him 
with the fairy tale that if not succeeded by two 
consecutive terms another term would not be a 
third term but such was his fear that his machine 
built up in seven and a half years would be de- 
stroyed over night, that he threatened not to leave 
the chair unless he were allowed to nominate his 
successor. 

Gentlemen of the jury, now comes the time 
when the third termer committed his second crime 
against friends, party, nation and republic. With 
his innermost conviction that his successor would 
be incompetent, incapable and that he would com- 
mit so many blunders while in office that at the 
expiration of his term the people would unani- 
mously demand the renomination of the third 
termer, he thought to remove that obstacle of the 
third termer and to make it appear that he was 
not ambitious and that a renomination would have 
to be forced upon him, he solemnly declared. 



220 The Attempted Assassination of 

"Never again will I run for president," but again 
ambition had blindfolded him and robbed him of 
his judgment of men in selecting William H. Taft 
as his successor although his most intimate friend 
Mr. Taft was aware of his oath of office and his 
duties toward the nation, there never was a whiter 
man in the white house and no one ever more de- 
served a re-election as an honor for his services 
to the country against the revolutionary machine of 
the third termer in the house and senate than Wil- 
liam H. Taft. 

Gentlemen of the jury, the third term, "never 
again will I run for president," has a parallel in 
the history of Rome. Whoever read the history 
of Julius Caesar, knows that this smart politician, 
while elected dictator, managed to become so popu- 
lar with the people that they offered him the kingly 
crown, but Julius Caesar knew that he had to bide 
his time, that the rest of senators knew of his ambi- 
tion, and after refusing three times, he knew they 
would ofifer it to him a fourth time, and when 
then he accepted it, he was murdered for ambi- 
tion sake. Never again will I run for president 
and under no circumstances, said this man, and 
four years later we find him eagerly seeking re- 
nomination at Chicago, to his friends, who advised 
him to run, he didn't have the heart to tell that if 
he were not a man of word he could never be a 
man of honor, but what shame lies in between his 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 221 

never again and his profane declaration that the 
crooks, thieves, scoundrels and liars had stolen the 
nomination from him, although he knew that the 
party could not give him what they had a third 
term not to give for the great Republican party de- 
termined to sooner go down to defeat than to 
violate the third term yet. 

Gentlemen of the jury, the third termer had li- 
cense to create a new party and be the power behind 
the throne and perhaps lead his party to victory. 
But having been deceived by the selection of his 
successor and having removed the mask he deter- 
mined to insist on a third term. Had we lived in 
a time of panic, general disorder, strikes with ar- 
mies of unemployed, most likely the third termer 
would have an easy walkin. He was anxious wait- 
ing for the government at Washington to start 
military intervention in Mexico, but the leaders of 
the Republican party feared that the third termer 
would muster an army of volunteer rough riders 
and return at election as the conquering hero. 

Gentlemen of the jury, the danger of the third 
termer was less in his probable election than in his 
sure but close defeat. The man who cried of the 
theft at Chicago would never submit to the verdict 
on November 5, however honest it may be; he 
would again yell robbery, and if he carried a solid 
west as was then expected, he would give way to 
his fighting nature and try to take the presidency 



222 The Attempted Assassination of 

on the battlefield and so invite civil war, yet, Ab. 
Lincoln said that war is hell, and that he who wil- 
fully invites war deserves death. Do we realize 
the horrors of civil war; are we willing to wash 
out the sin of violating the third term with the 
blood of our sons imagine torn from home, family 
and parents, from prosperity to dire want in order 
to place a man to the presidency he is legitimately 
not entitled to? Yet, gentlemen of the jury, the 
United States may still be able to subdue the rebels 
the danger the more grave than even civil war is 
the possibility of intervention by foreign powers, 
who may help the third termer in order to keep the 
union disunited and separated for we must know 
that our strength is not in our army and navy, mon- 
ey power, our strength is in our union, we would 
at once realize that we are surrounded by a pack 
of hungry wolves ready to destroy this hated repub- 
lic, ready to destroy Monroe doctrine, ready to an- 
nex the Panama canal and the great land of the 
brave and free, the home many millions free peo- 
ple, the dream of all heroes and martyrs for polit- 
ical freedom to 1848 would have ceased to be ow- 
ing to the ambitions of one man and one man's 
rule. 

I hope that the shot at Milwaukee has awaken- 
ed the patriotism of the American nation, that it 
has opened their eyes to the real danger and shown 
them the only safe way out of it as is proven by 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 223 

election returns in the great Democratic party the 
north, south, east and west is once more and more 
solidly united and proudly can we prove to the 
nations of the world that the spirit of 1776 is still 
alive and shall never die, and that self-government 
is an established fact and a success. 

I have been accused of having selected a state 
where capital punishment is abolished. I would 
say that I did not know the laws of any state I 
traveled through, it would be ridiculous for me to 
fear death after the act, as I expected to die dur- 
ing the act and not live to tell the story and if I 
knew that my death would have made the third 
term tradition more sacred, I am sorry I could 
not die for my country. 

Now, honorable men of the jury, I wish to say 
no more, in the name of God, go and do your duty, 
and only countries who ask admission by popular 
vote and accept the popular vote never wage a war 
of conquest, murder for to steal abolishes oppor- 
tunity for ambitious adventurers, for all political 
adventurers and military leaders have adopted the 
career of conquering heroes, wholesale murder, 
wholesale robbers called national aggrandizement. 
Prison for me is like martyrdom to me, like going 
to war. 

Before me is the spirit of George Washington, 
behind me that of McKinley. 



CHAPTER XXL 

SCHRANK'S UNWRITTEN LAWS. 

The following are John Flammang Schrank's 
four unwritten laws, "The Pillars of the Repub- 
lic," he calls them. They are presented exactly as 
written by Schrank, and as incorporated in the re- 
port of the alienists. 

BY JOHN FLAMMANG SCHRANK. 

When in the course of human events, it becomes 
necessary for one people to dissolve the political 
bonds which have hitherto connected them with 
another, due respect to mankind requires that we 
should declare the cause of such action. In these 
modest lines our forefathers have at once laid out 
the roads on which we should travel, it demon- 
strates their willingness to consult the opinions of 
others, as well as it duly respects the rights and 
feelings of others. In these critical days it is more 
than necessary to call the attention of the nation 
to the three wonderful documents which have es- 
tablished our people as an independent nation and 
under their guidance laid down in these documents 
we have become the most powerful nation on 
earth. The Declaration of Independence; The 
Constitution, and the farewell-address of George 
Washington. The most sacred custom of all na- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 225 

tions has ever been their reverence for their ances- 
tors, the honor they pay to their dead, and the ut- 
most respect to the good deeds who live after them, 
these customs observed hundreds of years handed 
down from one generation to another, we have 
come to call the traditions of a people. Tradition 
is an unwritten law when it concerns a whole na- 
tion, it is above the written statute, I would doubt 
the right of a court to have jurisdiction over a man 
who has defended tradition of his country, against 
violation. As we are not an original nation or 
race, the founders of the republic were the sons 
of the nation whose language we speak, it is tradi- 
tion with us especially that identified us as a na- 
tion. This nation has four unwritten laws, the 
oldest and most sacred, because established by Geo. 
Washington, is the third term tradition, it has 
never been violated and is an affective safe-guard 
against unscrupulous ambition, but never before 
has been established a test case of its inviolability 
as a warning to coming adventurers. In the pres- 
ent campaign for the first time in American his- 
tory we are confronted by a man to whom practi- 
cally nothing is sacred and pretends to stand above 
tradition. This man abused our constitution, he 
wants it amended until it is abolished. If our con- 
stitution is too old and in the way of progress after 
we have grown to be a rich nation with it, then the 
ten commandments so many thousand years old. 



226 The Attempted Assassination of 

must be a useless piece of junk. He has abused our 
highest Courts, he has spoken in the profanest 
language of our legislators, he has abused our best 
and most venerable citizens, calling them liars and 
scoundrels, he has shamefully abused our president, 
thereby undermining the dignity of the office, how 
can we expect our foreign born citizens to respect 
our institutions when an ex-President circumtravels 
the Union telling everybody that those honorable 
men at Chicago were thieves and crooks. Shall the 
people rule, is one of his demagogic phrases, yet 
he knows that in the very sense he wants this catch- 
word to be understood is an impossibility, the peo- 
ple and herewith I mean the rich as well as the 
poor never rule in a republic, they cannot rule, 
they have no time to rule, therefore they elect a 
body of honorable men to do the ruling to the bene- 
fit of all, in other words they entrust a body of 
men with their government, that is why Grover 
Cleveland said that a public office is a public 
trust. And a political party is the medium be- 
tween the people and the elected government, and 
any party that should nominate a man in violation 
of the third term tradition does no longer deserve 
to be a party entrusted by the people. This third 
termer could have been of more value to the coun- 
try had he lent his advice and honest opinion to his 
party and our president who eagerly sought his ad- 
vice, for a man's honest advice is his ideas and con- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 111 

victions but with man's ideas it is like digging a pan 
of sand from a river from the gold regions, the 
sand must be sifted and filtered, there might be one 
or more grains of gold found in it. A man's ideas 
must pass through the brains of other men, to be 
sifted and filtered and every grain of gold found 
will be appreciated, but a man who claims that he 
knows it all better, is equal to saying that his pan 
of sand is all gold. The third termer claims that 
it is not a third term, if not followed by two con- 
secutive terms, then a second term would not be 
a second, if given to man 8 years after his first, I 
wonder what to call such term, after a while he 
will tell us that a monarchy in this country is not 
a monarchy if the monarch is a native born; let 
it be established now and forever that it is a man's 
third term if he has twice been in office and if each 
time only twenty-four hours after taking oath and 
if third term is given to him or he seeks it twenty 
years after the second. If the third termer 
thought that the republican party whom he hailed 
from needed chastisement because she refused to 
violate tradition in his favor, he had the right to 
create a third party, nominate all officials for same 
and be the very soul and power behind the throne, 
but when it became evident that the whole party 
movement was only enacted to give him a third 
term, he had forfeited his citizenship and his life. 
Anybody who finances a third term movement 



228 The Attempted Assassination of 

should be expatriated and his wealth confis- 
cated. It is ridiculous to say that if he is defeat- 
ed in November it is also a verdict of the people 
to uphold the third term tradition, as we may as 
well say it is the verdict of the people to abolish 
the third term if he wins in November, the third 
term tradition has never been before the people as 
an issue to vote and for this reason it should never 
be put before them. It is almost a certainty, that 
if voted upon last year, the people would have de- 
clared in favor of upholding the tradition, while 
it is dead sure that if we were living this year in 
a panic, a business depression, with hundreds of 
thousands out of work instead of a general pros- 
perity, the third termer would walk in over the de- 
cision of the previous year. The dangers in this 
campaign are these, the third termer is sure that 
the nomination has been stolen and that the coun- 
try and the job belong to him, therefore if he gets 
honestly defeated in November he will again 
yell that the crooks of both parties have stolen the 
election, and should he carry a solid West, he and 
the hungry office seekers would not hesitate to 
take up arms to take by force what is denied him by 
the people, then we face a civil war, and it was Ab. 
Lincoln who said that war is hell and that he who 
wilfully invited war deserves death. We would 
then be compelled to wash out the sin of violating 
the third term with the blood of our sons. Yet, 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 229 

this is not the greatest danger we are facing. We 
have allowed an adventurer to circumtravel the 
Union with military escort, with the torch of revo- 
lution in his hands to burn down the very house we 
live in while we should be aware that we are sur- 
rounded by a pack of wolves ever ready to jump on 
us. Does anybody think that the European powers 
would sit idly while we are disunited, would a cer- 
tain power hesitate to help the third termer and 
make good the gravest mistake that power has made 
in 1861 by not keeping this country disunited and 
separated while we are just getting ready to be- 
come their greatest competitor on the seas after 
the completion of the Panama Canal. Our 
strength is not in our Army or Navy nor in our 
Money power, our strength is in our Union. In 
Union alone can we uphold the Monroe Doctrine 
our second unwritten law so much hated and dread- 
ed by all the world. The sister republic's Trans- 
vaal and Orange Free State were not destroyed be- 
cause it was the connecting link between Egypt 
and the Cape, not because gold was found, no, but 
because Great Brit, could not allow a second 
United States to establish a Monroe Doctrine on 
African soil. Reciprocity would have profited 
both the Union and Canada but England fears a 
too close a relation between the two nations and 
Premier Leurier's sin was that he was first a Cana- 
dian, second an American and third a Britisher, 



230 The Attempted Assassination of 

he had to be replaced by a man who is in the first 
second, and third place a Britisher. The outcome 
of the present campaign interests the powers more 
than us, all actions of Congress or Cabinet are 
sooner known in the Cabinets of Europe than we 
hear about them. There is today a "Cato" in 
the Senate of every country and in the folds of his 
cloak he has concealed several figs of unusual size, 
everyone of these figs represent one of our great 
American Trusts, and he concluded every speech 
with Carthage must be destroyed. With our 
Union destroyed we would cry with the Israelites 
in the desert: Lead us back to the meat pots of 
Egypt, give us a thousand trusts sooner than one 
third termer. If we think that we need a one man's 
rule, whose place cannot be filled by another among 
millions intelligent citizens, then it were about time 
that we got a licking from somewhere. What are 
we about to do, do we want the great building we 
have helped to build tear down and give every- 
body a brick, the people which is only the present 
generation cannot do what they want, for what 
they have and what they are they are greatly in 
obligation to the past and earlier generations who 
also helped to build up, therefore this generation 
called the people cannot do as they please which 
is so ardently advocated by the third termer. 
Have we learned no lesson about a one man's rule 
experienced in France with such disastrous results 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 231 

as the end of the reign of Napoleon I and Napole- 
on III. 

We are trying to establish here a system like our 
ancestors have done in Europe which all revolu- 
tions of a 1,000 years could not abolish, it would be 
useless to forcibly remove a third president be- 
cause the system would then be established. Are 
we under no obligation to the heroes of all wars 
for freedom and independence, are we over- 
throwing our republic while the heroes of the 
French revolutions and the martyrs of 1848 glad- 
ly gave their lives to establish republican institu- 
tions. May God enlighten the nation, may the 
spirit of 1776 still be alive, and when they tell us 
that there is a Rome on the other side let them 
understand that U. S. A. is not Carthage. In this 
campaign we may observe that prosperity is as 
dangerous to our institutions as hard times are, 
people are too busy making money, they gradu- 
ally loose all interest in politics, unless a third 
termer tells them that government is only medium 
to enrich them still more, how else can we explain 
his remark that Mr. Perkins wants his children to 
live better in this country after his departure, a 
miUioniare's children can only live better when the 
third term party doubles the millions of their 
father. In this critical time I find that men have 
more interest in the baseball results than to regis- 
ter, think and vote. But of course some people 



232 The Attempted Assassination of 

have no more sense than three guinea pigs. His 
movement is not progressive, they are insurgents, 
insurgents and revolutionary. Hardly any revo- 
lution has started without pretending that their 
movement was progressive. 

The abolition of the third term tradition is 
the abolition of the Monroe Doctrine also. In this 
Doctrine we are overtaking the guardianship over 
all republics on the American continent against 
Foreign encroachments. Naturally the third 
termer would prove too in 1916 that the fourth 
term is only his second, to do this he would have 
to become the conquering hero, we would commit 
the same faults France did 100 years ago National 
aggrandisement, yet France no larger today than 
before Napoleon I. The fourth termer could 
hardly gather laurels in a European or Asiatic war 
the natural consequences would that South Ameri- 
ca would become the field of his actions. We have 
upheld the Monroe Doctrine without the consent 
of these countries so she could prevent those na- 
tions from inviting a European power to protect 
them by declaring that inasmuch as the third term 
tradition is abolished, the Monroe Doctrine is no 
longer binding, because they are more afraid of 
the third termer than they would be of any foreign 
prince. The prudence of our forefathers has de- 
livered to us an equally sacred unwritten law 
which reads that no president should embrace 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 233 

another Creed than Protestant if possible a sect ^ i 
of the English church. I am a Roman Catholic. 
I love my religion but I hate my church, as long 
as the Roman parish is not independent from 
Rome, as long as Catholic priests are prevented 
from getting married, as long as Rome is still 
more engaged in politics and accumulation of 
money contrary to the teachings of the Lord, the 
Roman Catholic church is not the religion for a 
president of the United States. The separation of 
state from church in France has sufficiently proved 
that Rome and republic are enemies. 

The fourth unwritten law which is practically 
supplementary to the second we find in George 
Washington's farewell address where he advises (S) 
us to live in peace with your neighbor. We have 
no right to start a war of conquest with any nation 
and our relations to the South American republic 
can be improved if we remove their fear of a steady 
conquest by us by observing this law. Does it not 
look ridiculous that established governments in 
this enlightened age sends thousands of unfortun- 
ates to prison as punishment for murdering, for to 
steal and rob, while these same nations are armed 
with all descriptable weapons like so many bandits 
ever ready to jump at each other's throat. What else 
is war but murder for to rob that which belongs to 
others. Since men have learned to work they have 
no more right to war. The salvation of the human 



234 The Attempted Assassination of 

family must be worked out by international Com- 
mercialism the sooner all industrial establishments 
of the world unite like in the days of the Hansa can 
the social questions be solved. International Com- 
mercialism must have individual legislation and 
jurisdiction, independent from national legisla- 
tion, but must be acknowledged by all states and 
the United States is the only power ruled by com- 
mercialism without a mailed fiat and will be the 
first to recognize International Commercialism for 
this alone will abolish and distribute wealth more 
fair and just, and work to a higher state of civiliza- 
tion. 

JOHN SCHRANK. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

UNUSUAL COURT PRECEDENT. 

Judge August C. Backus' method of conduct- 
ing the Schrank case has established a precedent 
for such cases, and the action of the court in estab- 
lishing a new form of procedure has met with 
favorable comment on the part of lawyers, alien- 
ists, court officials and editors all over the world. 

Instructing the commission of five alienists in 
its duties Judge Backus said. 
Gentlemen of the Commission : 

"You have been appointed as an impartial com- 
mission to examine into the present mental condi- 
tion of the defendant John Schrank, who is charged 
with the crime of assault with intent to kill and 
murder Theodore Roosevelt, with a loaded re- 
volver, on the 14th day of October, 1912, in the city 
and county of Milwaukee and state of Wisconsin. 

"The court in this proceeding will finally de- 
termine the issue. I have decided to take this 
method of procedure instead of a jury trial, be- 
cause as a rule in trials by jury the case resolves 
itself into a battle of medical experts, and in my 
experience I have never witnessed a case where the 
testimony of the experts on one side was not directly 
contradicted by the testimony of as many or more 




James G. Flanders, 
Attorney for Schrank. 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 237 

experts on the other side. Where men especially 
trained in mental and nervous diseases disagree, 
how can it be expected that a jury of twelve lay- 
men should agree? Such testimony has been very 
unsatisfactory to the jury and to the court, and gen- 
erally very expensive to the community. 

"Bear in mind, gentlemen, that your appoint- 
ment has not been suggested by either counsel for 
the state or for the defendant, or by any other party 
or, source directly or indirectly interested in this 
inquisition. You are the court's commission, and 
you must enter upon your duties free from any bias 
or prejudice, if any there be. You should assume 
your duties, and I know you will, with the highest 
motives in seeking the truth, and then pronounce 
your judgment without regard to the effect it may 
have upon the state or upon the defendant; in other 
words, in your inquiry and deliberation you are 
placed on the same plane as the judge. 

"If any person seeks to influence you or talks to 
you as a commission, or to any member of the com- 
mission, who is not duly requested to appear be- 
fore you, report him to the court so that an order 
to show cause why he should not be punished for 
contempt may issue. 

"If there be any witnesses you desire, the court 
will command their attendance. The court will 
grant you the services of a phonographic reporter 



238 The Attempted Assassination of 

so that everything that is said and done may ap- 
pear of record. 

"This commission may now retire, select a mod- 
erator and proceed with the inquiry. 

"Now, gentlemen, perform your duties fairly 
and impartially and render such findings to the 
court as your consciences and your judgments ap- 
prove. 

"The question for your determination is, 'Is 
the defendant John Schrank sane or insane at the 
present time?' " 

Editorial comment from three newspapers 
is herewith presented as showing the general trend 
of comment on the course followed by Judge 
Backus: 

The .Milwaukee Free Press said: 

"The findings of the alienists appointed by 
Judge Backus to determine the mental condition of 
Schrank were foreseen. There has been little 
doubt at any time of the derangement of that un- 
fortunate man. This fact, however, does not de- 
tract from appreciation of the excellent and novel 
course pursued by Judge Backus in taking advan- 
tage of the statute that permitted him to submit 
the question of Schrank's sanity to a body of alien- 
ists appointed by himself instead of leaving the 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 239 

question to a jury at the tender mercy of alienists 
employed alike by state and defense. 

"The judge justified his procedure in these 
words, when instructing the examining physicians: 

" 'I have decided to take this method of pro- 
cedure instead of a jury trial, because as a rule in 
trials by jury the case resolves itself into a battle 
of medical experts, and in my experience I have 
never witnessed a case where the testimony of the 
experts on one side was not directly contradicted 
by the testimony of as many or more experts on the 
other side. Where men specially trained in mental 
and nervous diseases disagree, how can it be ex- 
pected that a jury of twelve laymen should agree? 
Such testimony has been very unsatisfactory to the 
jury and to the court, and generally very expensive 
to the community.' " 

"Worse than that. It has been a scandal to 
the medical profession, a source of travesty to judi- 
cial procedure and all too often a means of defeat- 
ing the ends of justice. 

"The very course pursued by Judge Backus was 
advocated by President Gregory of the American 
Bar association not very long ago, and the outcome 
in this instance at least is such as to recommend its 
adoption by the bench wherever the statutes per- 
mit." 

* * * 



240 The Attempted Assassination of 

The Chicago Record-Herald said: 

"It is notorious that 'expert testimony' is too of- 
ten confused and confusing testimony which jurors 
and judges feel themselves bound to disregard in 
favor or mere horse sense. The state's experts are 
matched or overmatched by the experts for the de- 
fense, and the conflict of 'scientific' testimony as- 
sumes in many cases the proportions of a public 
scandal. 

"Hence the 'Wisconsin idea' as applied by 
Judge Backus of Milwaukee, who is presiding over 
the trial of John Schrank, is an admirable one. 
Under a statute of Wisconsin a judge may summon 
a certain number of experts and make them officers 
of the court. They testify as such officers, and pre- 
sumably the state pays them reasonable fees. Under 
such a plan as this there is no temptation to strain 
science in the interest of a long purse, and impartial 
opinions is likely to be the rule. 

"Statutes similar to that of Wisconsin are need- 
ed in all other states. 'Expert testimony' has long 
been a byword and reproach. Of course, under 
Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence no defendant can be 
deprived of the right to call witnesses of his own 
choosing, and after all a medical expert is only a 
witness who gives opinions instead of facts. Still, 
a law which authorizes the court to call truly im- 
partial experts would not seem to be 'unconsti- 



Ex-President Theodore Roosevelt 241 

tutional.' It is certainly not unfair or unreason- 
able from the lay point of view." 
* * * 
The Saturday Night of Toronto, Ont., said : 
"In the stress attending on matters of greater 
moment which have been occupying the attention 
of the daily press of late, the judicial wisdom o 
Mr A C. Backus, municipal judge of the city of 
Milwaukee, charged with the task of trying John 
Schrank, the man who attempted to slay Col. 
Roosevelt, has been overlooked. 

"Nevertheless, he established a precedent with 
regard to the trial of prisoners where insanity is 
the only defense, that should be copied not only by 
every state of the American Union, but by every 
province of Canada. 

"It was not generally known that the laws of 
the state of Wisconsin gave a presiding justice the 
plenary powers he has exercised, but every good 
judge who has presided over cases where alienists 
have been employed to furnish testimony must have 
yearned for similar authority. 

"In the Schrank case Judge Backus decided 
to eliminate all direct testimony by alienists, and 
to constitute such experts into an auxiliary court 
who should co-operate with him in the final judg- 
ment of the case. 



242 The Attempted Assassination of 

"His auxiliary, consisting of five physicians, 
was directed to elect a moderator who would pre- 
side over their deliberations and decide the issues 
of sanity or insanity in case of a deadlock. 

"It would be difficult to say what objection 
could be taken to this system in any case where 
alienists are subpoenaed. It is even possible that 
by carefully protecting the rights of the prisoner 
the same system could be worked out in any case 
where medical testimony beyond the mere proving 
of the crime is required. In many murder cases 
physicians have been heard swearing to contrary 
positions until the jurors, disgusted with the con- 
fusion of the testimony, have simply thrown up 
their hands, neglected their duty to consider the 
reasonable facts of the case, and allowed murder- 
ers to go free. 

"Judge Backus has taken a forward step in the 
administration of justice on this continent, and it 
is to be trusted that the effects of it will be far- 
reaching." 



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